This summer, I returned to my hometown in Hunan after a long absence, but there was no shadow of my parents there, only dust and desolation.
It took me three days to clean every nook and cranny of the place, until tears blurred my vision when I washed the crockpot and teapot.
My father has been dead for fourteen years, and my mother has been away from us for four years. They did not live to be sixty years old before they left us. There is an old house in their hometown, and the gate has been locked for a long time.
I work in Guangzhou, and although I am very busy, I go back to my hometown once a year. My wife didn't understand and said that even though my parents had passed away, it took a lot of time to clean up
I just smiled and said, my parents love to be clean, I'll go back and clean up for them. When I returned to my hometown, I went straight to the old house. I haven't been back for a year, and shrubs and weeds more than a person tall have grown in front of the house and behind the house. When I opened the door, there was dust, cobwebs, and dead leaves.
Start cleaning, first by removing the cobwebs, then sweeping and plastering. After these steps were completed, the cupboard was opened to find a dozen cockroaches and spiders crawling out of it.
To clean thoroughly, I filled the sink with water, added dish soap, and washed it three times. Next, I boiled a large pot of boiling water and put the dishes and chopsticks in it to sterilize.
After washing the dishes and chopsticks, I found an old teapot in the corner of the cupboard. This teapot is an heirloom in our family and has been used for over 30 years. It is a clay teapot made of clay with a broken lid, so my father made a new one with his own hands.
The teapot used by my father had a hole, but he pasted it with cement and continued to use it. Every morning, as soon as the sky is dark, my parents get up and start busy. My father would carry his farming tools to work in the fields, and before leaving, he would pour a cup of tea from a teapot and drink it down.
The mother was busy on the stove, burning three stoves at the same time, one for cooking the pig's gruel, one for the family's breakfast, and one for boiling water. The kettle is made of aluminum, which can be filled with a thermos and a crockpot teapot, which is used to make tea, and the teapot is used to hold cold boiled water, which can be drunk at any time when you are thirsty.
When the rice was ripe, our whole family would go to work in the fields. The mother would bring a clay pot, teapot and enamel cup, place it on the edge of the ridge, and cover it with straw. The sun was scorching, we were sweating like rain, and our clothes were soaked.
The mother always knew the time accurately, and suddenly shouted: "Drink tea!"."Like a happy fawn, I threw down my sickle, went straight to the teapot, picked up the enamel cup, poured a glass of cold water, and drank it all.
Sweet tea moistens the throat, and cold water is better than honey. Drink water while you're lazy and stretch your back. In order to avoid criticism, he was clever, poured water and invited his parents to drink tea, smiled and took the cup, handed back the old crockpot teapot, smiled kindly, and his eyes were blurred with tears.
In the tears, I seemed to see my parents smiling at me.