My nephew from my hometown called, and my cousin died. My cousin and my family have always had a good relationship, and when my cousin is gone, I naturally want to go back. Early the next morning, my son drove the car and pulled my wife and me out of the door, all the way from Jinan to my hometown. Because the eldest grandson has to prepare for the exam, the daughter-in-law takes care of it at home. 
My family lives in a small mountain village, about 3 hours drive from Jinan, I could have taken the train back, my son said that there is still some distance from the station to my hometown, the family is busy, can not let everyone pick us up again, although the drive is slower, but it is convenient to go back and forth. After calculation, I have been away from my hometown for more than 30 years, but I have a Xi that I must return to my hometown every year for the Qingming Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and New Year. The Qingming Festival is naturally for grandparents and parents to go to the grave, and the Mid-Autumn Festival and the New Year, is to visit a few old people who are still alive at home, and feel the hometown feelings, and the cousin who passed away today is naturally a person who I have to go to his house every time I go home. The time was relatively smooth, we set off at 6 o'clock and arrived at the entrance of the village before 10 o'clock. I have a Xi that when I get out of the car at the entrance of the village, take out the cigarettes I prepared in advance, see the neighbors and hand out one, say a few gossips, ask about the current situation, they are very happy, and I am also very happy. 
There used to be seven or eight hundred people in our village, which was not a big village, but the people in the same village were mainly surnamed Sun, and there were also forty or fifty foreign surnames. But in a village, they all grew up together, and the old and young masters all talked about their generations. In the past, from the entrance of the village to the door of the house, two packs of cigarettes were not enough, and now there are more than half packs of cigarettes left. When everyone sees me coming back, they always gather around, and on the street in front of and behind the house, people pass by from time to time, but now it is rare to see a person. After all, I haven't been back to my hometown for five or six years to attend the funeral. Attending my cousin's funeral, I was still thinking on the way that it must be a sea of people, although it was sad, but it also did not lose the liveliness and family affection of my hometown. I remember attending a funeral when I was a child, and a hutong was full of people, carrying coffins, saluting, and kneeling. When I was a child, I didn't like the funeral banquet the most, kneeling three times and knocking nine times, crying and shaking the sky, the process was too cumbersome, sometimes it was late, and I could only eat at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. But when I arrived at the scene, I was stunned, the whole funeral scene, I counted one by one, plus my wife, there were only 24 people, most of them were old people like me, and there were few young people at all. 
The cousin's coffin had been placed on top of a pickup truck, and the cousin put the urn in the coffin and repacked it. In the past, village elders were responsible for shouting and saluting, but now there are no more rules. The truck drove slowly in front, and the group followed sparsely behind. When I set off, I was still thinking about how to bring the coffin down by relying on us old guys, but I didn't expect to see that the crane and workers were already waiting when I arrived at the scene. The car came to a stop, and the workers skillfully secured the coffin with wire ropes. In this way, Uncle Cousin's coffin was put into a pit dug in advance by a crane. 
Everyone covered the soil with shovels, and from this moment on, there would be no shadow of my cousin in the world. Uncle Cousin is almost eighty-five this year, and he lives alone in his hometown. Or the neighbor Uncle Stub found that the cousin had not gone out for a day, and felt strange, and an uncle who was almost eighty called someone to knock on the door of the cousin, only to find that the person was lying under the bed, already cold. My cousin is already a deputy county-level cadre, and I have basically no contact with my family over the years, so I asked for leave and hurried from Nanjing, in fact, I know the situation of my cousin, my cousin settled down in Nanjing, and his job is good, and he has to take his cousin to live in Nanjing several times, but the old man is not used to living in the elevator room, he can't go to the toilet, and he wants to come back every time he doesn't have a week. Now, the young people in the village have basically gone out, and the sixty-year-olds left behind in the village are all young people, but fortunately, there are professional institutions and mechanized operations now, otherwise it would be difficult to settle my uncle's coffin with us old bones. After settling down my cousin, my cousin and nephew have also arranged for dinner, and the restaurant in the township Daji has made 10 tables of banquets, but when I eat, there are still six or seven empty Zhuo. By the time the ceremony was over, it was only half past 12 o'clock, and we were in a hurry to the table. I vaguely remember that there were forty or fifty tables at my parents' funerals, and there were only thirty or forty people who found help. After dinner, it was already four o'clock, and I discussed with my son that we would stay in our hometown tonight and not go back. 
Since we come back several times a year, the quilts and mattresses are available at home, and my wife goes home first in the morning to clean up, so the family can live a little bit, and my son and cousin go to talk about things. My wife and I were going to walk around the village. Seeing that every house was guarded by General Tie, I introduced to my wife the owner of each family, who may have settled somewhere now, and how many years I haven't seen it. Now the roads in the village are all red brick roads, when the road was paved, the village raised funds, after all, in the countryside, this road is not a family can be built, nor is it a family to walk. Although I was in Jinan at that time and didn't go home much, I still took the initiative to pave the road with 1,000 yuan. In fact, the conditions in the village are good now, and all the water and electricity are connected, but unfortunately there are not many people. 
Seeing a door open, I knew it was Uncle Xincheng's house, so we went straight in. Uncle Xincheng is also in his 70s this year, and when we went in, the old couple was rubbing corn kernels with their hands. When he saw us come in, Uncle Xincheng was so happy that he couldn't keep his mouth shut. Busy asked Aunt Xincheng to move Maza. Thinking of Uncle Xincheng, I can't help but sigh, at that time, when the village was still in the elementary school, Uncle Xincheng's father was the school guard, and it was said that the doorman had neither ** nor equipment, and was responsible for the care of the village primary school. At that time, I didn't bring water to school, and when I was thirsty, I went to Uncle Xincheng's father to ask for water. There was a pressurized well behind the guard's room, and Uncle Xincheng's father placed a bucket there, and in the bucket was a gourd-shaped scoop. Inside is freshly pressed water from a pressurized well. When everyone drinks water, they use that water scoop to drink. No one ever found it unhygienic. Sometimes Uncle Xincheng is here, and we all call him a water officer. But now Uncle Xincheng can't go out without crutches. 
Uncle Xincheng has no sons, and his two daughters have settled in the county, and both daughters are promising, one is the first in the county hospital, and the other is a cadre in the county unit. Ask Uncle Xincheng why he doesn't live in the city. Uncle Xincheng said that it was inconvenient to live in his daughter's house, he and Aunt Xincheng were so good, they got up when they wanted to get up in the morning, they slept when they wanted to sleep, and they called their daughter ** when they were not feeling well. It was my cousin's departure that made Uncle Xincheng a little vigilant, saying that if one of him and Aunt Xincheng left, the other had to go to find his daughter, otherwise no one would know if he fell to the ground. 
As he was talking, another person came, this person is my same generation, called Jiahe, Jiayi entered the door and said, I haven't heard Uncle Xincheng's house so lively for a long time. Listen carefully to the voice and know that I am speaking. I was busy taking out a cigarette, Uncle Xincheng has never smoked or drunk all his life, I don't know if it's because of his two daughters. But the Jiahe brothers are going to smoke. Jiahe took the cigarette and fumbled around his pocket to find a box of matches, in the city, he had not seen a match light a cigarette for many years. Back then, I vaguely remember that the best cigarette to entertain guests at that time was "Big Chicken" brand cigarettes. While smoking, Jiahe moved a stool to sit down, saying that this year's corn harvest was not bad. It's a good year. 
This Jiahe has two sons, one in Qingdao and one in the county, the two sons got married and bought a house, Jiahe has exhausted his savings and debts, so when the farm is slack, Jiahe has to ride a battery car to the county seat to do odd jobs. Today, because of my cousin's business, Jiahe didn't go out, and he shared a table with the Jiahe brothers during dinner. 
Jiahe said that now the county is engaged in construction, built a lot of buildings, so there are a lot of decoration work, the youngest son has learned decoration outside before, and now he is engaged in decoration in the county, and there is no store of his own, so he relies on the word of mouth of customers and the introduction of relatives and friends to pick up the work. I followed my youngest son to decorate in the county, but I had no skills, so I could only help with the materials and get started, and the youngest son gave him a salary of 100 every day. 100 yuan, Jiahe is very content, although he makes a lot of money, but Jiahe said that the competition is too big now, many outsiders come to the county to decorate, you **high people**low, the youngest son's business is not easy to do. Back in the day, we used to go to school together in the village elementary school, and after school, we often ran all over the village, from the head of the village to the end of the village, from the edge of the field to the stream, and we didn't go home to eat until the adults shouted, and we had to meet together at night to catch frogs, dig birds' eggs, play with slingshots, and catch loaches. At that time, there was no homework, no family constraints, and I was very happy to be free.
Looking back now, they are all old men with white hair, and even so, this old man can't get together a table of banquets. Over the years, when I get older, I always like to sigh and always feel a little homesick. This time, I agreed with my wife and let my son go back alone. We are an old couple in our hometown, guarding the village, after all, this is my roots!