At 4 pm, the rain stopped and the sky became brighter. I finished my meal early and rode my motorcycle to Nanwa to visit Mr. Gu, a famous writer in my hometown. Mr. Hegu's hometown South Australia is only seven or eight miles away from my home Lijiagou. As a cultural celebrity in his hometown, I have admired him for a long time, but I met him after a brief encounter.
I remember meeting Mr. Hegu on Sina blog in June, 20 15. His beautiful blog, bumpy experience and nostalgia for his hometown attracted me deeply, so I asked him to be a blogger as a lover of the local party literature, but he actually agreed. One day in July, I read his novella Quarry published in the February 2005 issue of Shaanxi Literature, which described his thrilling work scene when he went up the mountain more than 40 years ago, and there were many interesting people and things. Tongchuan Cement Plant where he once worked, which is now Shengwei Cement Plant, is also the place where I work now. After reading it, I wrote the following comments: "This is a novella with my teacher. The Heihe River in the article is the Qishui River in our hometown. People can always meet. You have worked in the cement plant for more than 40 years. The younger generation just works in the place where you used to work, which is today's Shengwei Cement Plant. You can often feel the rumble of guns like magnitude earthquakes. It is much safer to drill and have sex now than before. Electric detonators, excavators and forklifts have replaced most of the manual operations in the past. Time has passed. After reading this article, I also have a lot of thoughts. After suffering, I know that happiness is hard to come by! " The next day, Teacher Gu replied: "Liu Weihai, the instructor in the article, is over 80 years old and lives in your village. I hope you have the opportunity to visit him and say hello to the old man! "
After reading the comments, after several inquiries, the instructor Liu I was looking for moved to the family building of the cement plant, so I found the 84-year-old instructor Liu the next day. I was received by his 57-year-old eldest son. The old man is hale and hearty with white hair. He is just affected by a cerebral infarction and speaks slowly. Years have bent his tall body more than 40 years ago, but his face is still vaguely written with the lofty sentiments of commanding hundreds of people to cut mountains and blow up rocks. When I said that I was entrusted by Mr. Valley to visit him, his son explained that it was "harmony". The old man's closed eyes suddenly flashed and said with difficulty, "I quarreled with others for his college degree." When he left, I gave him a blue canvas box! " I am surprised at the old man's memory. The past more than forty years ago seems to have happened yesterday. When I left, I took two photos of the old man with my mobile phone, wishing him health and longevity.
After the autumn rain, the air in Weibei Plateau was fresh, and the wheat seedlings in the field leaned out shyly and looked at their companions. The crystal dew on the leaves is also affectionate. With the caress of autumn wind, dewdrops jumped down from the leaves and moistened Mother Earth happily. The persimmon trees on the original shore are covered with semi-green and semi-yellow persimmons, and the green persimmons before and after the first frost will turn into strings of red lanterns to illuminate this bleak soil. Less than 10 minutes by motorcycle, I saw a stone tablet of "Hometown of River Valley" standing at the entrance of Nan 'ao village from a distance, so I met an uncle 200 meters into the village and asked how to get to Mr. River Valley's house. I rode 100 meters in the direction of my uncle's finger, turned left into an alley and came to the outside of Mr. Valley's garden. There is a forklift outside the courtyard wall, but the gate is locked. Is Mr. Wang out?
Walking along the alley for twenty or thirty meters, I saw an old man with a leisure hat and gray temples standing on the other side of the ditch. I recognized this as Mr. Tsukuya, stepped forward to shake hands with him, and he guessed who I was. He said that he would go out for a walk after supper. The village has been without water for a long time. The drinking water project of Mengjiayuan across the ditch is higher than that of Nan 'ao Village. It depends on whether the government plans to divert water from Mengjiayuan to the village to solve the problem of villagers' draught. I lamented that Mr. Wang was busy writing biographies and was still thinking about the difficulties of the villagers. Below the ditch is Mr. Wang's old house when he was a child. Several earth caves have collapsed, and outside the cave is an old pagoda tree planted by Mr. Wang's ancestor General Wu Lue of the Ming Dynasty. The sky is covered by the sun and the roots are entangled. Only a few people can surround the tree. More than 600 years old locust tree tells the history of depression in the south. How many tree dealers paid a high price to buy, but they were euphemistically rejected by Mr. Wang and fellow villagers: selling trees is selling ancestors, and no matter how much money you give!
When I came to the home of Mr. Valley's third brother, I met Mr. Valley's 80-year-old mother. She is kind-hearted, tenacious and has an amazing memory. When I said my name was Lei, she knew who my grandparents were. The old man often cooks by himself, works in the fields, sews clothes and shoes and takes care of his great-grandchildren. No wonder Mr. Valley tells the story of his old mother in his book. This is a true portrayal of an ancient family.
I came out from his third brother's house, and Mr. Gu took me to his Guiyuan, which covers an area of about one acre and was rebuilt by an abandoned school. When you open the door, you are greeted by a sidewalk paved with red bricks two meters wide. On both sides are a variety of trees and exotic flowers planted by Mr. Gu, including hawthorn, tamarisk, bamboo, pomegranate, cherry and apricot. The elves in these gardens danced in the autumn wind, as if nodding to me and my master. There is a wooden pavilion in the middle of the left side of the garden, which looks simple and elegant, without any trace of deliberate carving. There is an old-fashioned bellows on the bench of the pavilion. When I saw the bellows, I seemed to see my mother pushing and pulling the bellows while cooking and burning the stove. Unfortunately, the bellows at home later felt useless and was chopped into firewood by my father. Near the left courtyard wall, there are dozens of meters of grape racks and several varieties are planted. Now there is only one small blue grape left. Miss Wang let me try it. It is really sweet. When Mr. Valley built Guiyuan in 2009, he collected the old things around his hometown, such as graphite plates, stone benches, stone troughs, stone monkey pegs and so on. His love for the elderly once puzzled his relatives and neighbors, but after the completion of the Danggui Garden, people came in an endless stream and all admired his good intentions. With the development of modern civilization, the old things of ancestors have been lost, and the old people can only have vague memories, but the latecomers can't find the legends of their fathers. Isn't returning to the garden a microcosm of exploring the farming civilization of our ancestors?
On the right side of the sidewalk leading to the garden, stands the stone sheep that Mr. Valley is proud of. About half a man's height, weighing a thousand pounds, it is very old and vivid in carving. Legend has it that the ancestors of He family originated from Qiang nationality. This sheep used to belong to Hejia's ancestral grave. It used to be a couple, and the other one is gone. Fortunately, Mr. Wang asked around and found it, which is in Guiyuan collection.
Mr. Wang's good friend, a famous American writer, essayist and painter, after learning the story of Shiyang, happily wrote a poem "Shiyang enters the door-to what":
Shiyang is like a tour guide returning to the park, telling visitors its legendary and heavy history! Dahlias in the garden are particularly gorgeous, the petals are as delicate as peony, and the purple, pink and red bodies are covered with dew, which is as charming as a beauty who has just bathed. Mr. Wang's old mother also planted various seasonal vegetables in the garden, including onions, peppers, leeks, greens and pumpkins. Every time she cooks, it is pleasant to pick a few in the garden. This is really green food.
Opposite the gate is a newly-built tile-roofed house with brick and wood structure, and there are no tiles on the wall, which reflects Mr. Wang's style of repairing the old as before. Just opposite the living room, there are two old-fashioned tables and chairs of our ancestors. On the fireplace, there is the ranking of our ancestors. On the wall, there are some photos of our ancestors in different periods. There is a log structure at the top of the living room. Mr. Wang said that wood will not be infected with insects after antiseptic treatment. Turn left from the living room is the kitchen and bathroom, about 30 square meters from Mr. Wang's studio. There are thousands of books on one wall and desks on both sides, all kinds of ink, ink, stone and pigment. On the wall near the window, Mr. Wang took photos with famous writers such as Li Ruobing, Lu Yao, Chen, Jia Pingwa and Tie Ning. There is also a photo of the reportage "The Mayor of Zhang Tiemin", which was adapted into a TV series. After it was broadcast in the prime time of CCTV, the response was strong. The "Five One Project Awards" were awarded in the Great Hall of the People. On the left wall of the window is a family photo of my husband, and on the ground is a landscape painting that my husband painted in the afternoon. On the right of the living room is Mr. Wang's living room. The kang and the bed are in two bedrooms.
After the visit, we sat in the living room and chatted. In 2009, Mr. Wang applied for early retirement at the age of 57 and returned to his native Nanwa Xiuyuan, also known as Guiyuan, to bid farewell to the noise of the city and the disturbance of administrative affairs and concentrate on reading and writing books. After the publication of six volumes of Hegu's collected works in 2006, 20 10 was included in The Analects of Qinling Mountains, 20 13 co-authored the long documentary literature "National Wind", "Language of Heaven and Earth" and "Musician Zhao Jiping", and 20 13 co-authored the long novel "Ancient Town of Chen Lu", 2065 438. When I was in middle school, I read Selected Poems of Hegu by Mr. Wang. He is the editor of Chang 'an Magazine in Xi 'an, and he doesn't come back often, so he has no chance to meet. Later, he went to Hainan and returned to Xi at the beginning of this century. Mr. Wang was a pioneer in Tongchuan Cement Plant from 65438 to 0975. His interest in literature was recommended to the Chinese Department of Northwest University, and he was a classmate of the famous writer Jia Pingwa. He has been engaged in literary creation for decades. Chen, a famous writer, prefaced Hegu Collection and marveled at his writings of more than 5 million words in the past 40 years. There are countless works published in national newspapers such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily and People's Literature. The works are full of emotions and articles, and poetry, prose, reportage, novels, film and television literature and dance drama are magnificent. His homesickness series of essays, about farming, flowers, trees, crops, land and neighborhoods in his hometown, are full of strong local flavor, which makes people immersive and enlightening.
I met Mr. Gu by chance, but it was deja vu. He is easy-going and approachable, patiently explaining interesting people in literary creation to me, making me feel how profound his historical culture and literary knowledge are. I am ashamed that I have only read less than a quarter of the thousands of blog posts in his blog. Because of their own cultural level, some still don't understand. He encouraged me to study more, read more and write more. Diligence can make up for my shortcomings. His good friend, Mr. Liu Chengzhang, went to the United States to accompany his children in his seventies, but he didn't have the foundation to teach himself to paint. Now his paintings are collected by major museums around the world. At the same time, his essays, poems, lyrics and paintings are often published in domestic newspapers such as People's Daily and Guangming Daily. Many people marvel that at the age of 70, it is never too old to learn. His words made my original sense of inferiority fade away, and I couldn't help but want to pick up my dreams when I was young.
Unconsciously, more than two hours passed, and it was already past 7 o'clock in the evening. I got up and left. I gave him a sample of Looking for Teacher Liu and two other articles, and Mr. Wang gave me his autographed Return to the Garden, The Analects of Qinling and The Old City of Chen Lu. He accompanied me to the door. I don't know when it began to rain, and it was foggy everywhere. I can't see my fingers. I started the motorcycle, turned on the lights and said goodbye to my husband. The light can only see the distance of two meters ahead. I had to grope my way forward, my clothes were wet by the rain, but I seemed to see that the road ahead became brighter again.
Written by the author in Tongchuan Shengwei 2065 438+05 10 10.