Author: Huo Xiangjin
The heart of interdependence in this world is the most sincere emotion, and the hand that supports each other is the warmest support. When I was young, I often heard my adoptive mother say, "My child is my mother's life!" ”
In the early '60s, my adoptive mother and I needed to go back to the countryside from the city. On an early winter morning, my adoptive father found a truck carrying my adoptive mother, who had congenital heart disease, and five-year-old me, along with some furniture, and drove them from Taiyuan City to a small mountain village called Sesame Point in Wuxiang County. There were my grandfather and grandmother in the village, who lived in the main house, and my adoptive father settled my mother and us in the west wing. Three days later, my adoptive father returned to work in the city, leaving my adoptive mother and I to start a life in the countryside.
The winter in my hometown was very cold, and my adoptive mother's illness worsened. She coughed incessantly, and her leg was swollen to the point of a pit. Outside, the northwest wind was blowing strongly. Blew the hemp paper on the window. My adoptive mother asked me to move a stool and put it on a clay kang and let me hold a hammer and a nail half an inch long, and my adoptive mother said, "Stand on the stool and nail the two corners of the sheet to the window." I did. But I didn't have the strength, and instead of driving the nail in, I knocked the back of my hand swollen. I cried silently, because my adoptive father had told me when he was leaving, "Don't cry loudly in front of your mother, my child." Her heart can't hear your cry, she must be obedient! "Mom, I hurt! "I whispered, and my adoptive mother cried as she touched my hand. My adoptive mother told me to put on my padded jacket and go to the upper room to call my grandfather, who came over with a cane and helped us order the sheets. Before leaving, he touched my head and said, "My baby is so young, how can I do this work, I really suffer." ”
In order not to cause trouble to the grandparents, the adoptive mother did not eat with the grandparents. At the age of six, I began to learn how to steam wotou, roll noodles, boil porridge and pickle vegetables. My adoptive mother is like a strict teacher, I have learned, she will put her arms around me and praise: "My child is smart!" "If I didn't do it right, my adoptive mother would hit my hand with a measuring ruler, and it hurt, and I didn't dare to cry loudly, so I lay on the ground and couldn't get up. My adoptive mother was out of options, so she begged me: "Little grandmother, get up quickly!" Hurry up and get some coal cake for my mother, the fire is tired. "Every time I heard my adoptive mother say this, I borrowed a donkey from the slope and went to work like a gust of wind.
My neighbor had a grandmother who could tell a story, and I ran to her house whenever I had time. As soon as I heard the beginning, my adoptive mother called me back through the courtyard wall. The grandmother said, "Baby, go back quickly, your mother can't leave you for a moment!" "My adoptive mother used to wear two big braids when she was younger, so she gave me long braids as well. But there is a shortage of water in the mountainous area of Wuxiang, and there is not enough water for eating, let alone bathing and washing hair. I had lice on my head, and my adoptive mother was in good spirits. Will use a grate to get rid of lice for me. The long hair was knotted, and it hurt me. A few times I took scissors to cut my hair, but I was scared off by my adoptive mother's sadness. Ever since I was a child, I was afraid that she would be sad because she would be hospitalized if she was sad. The adoptive father would say, "Don't make your mother sad, just listen to her!" ”
The hometown draught should be pulled up from the water cellar. My adoptive mother and I didn't have much strength, so it took a lot of effort to pull out a bucket of water. Once I was pulling water with my adoptive mother, my adoptive mother suddenly had a heart attack, and as soon as she let go, I was defenseless, and almost fell into the well, not to mention, the wheel turned upside down, and my arm was bloody, and it hurt so much that I cried with tears, so that I wanted to cry, so it might hurt more. But seeing my adoptive mother's uncomfortable appearance, I couldn't care about my own injury, so I hurriedly found medicine from my adoptive mother's pocket and fed it to her. Oh, yes! I'm my adoptive mother's life, so I have to be strong! Even the people in the village said, "This girl is really a big deal!" ”
The adoptive mother is very beautiful, and I have heard from people in the city that the portrait of the Mona Lisa resembles her. But the adoptive mother has no education, no job, and poor health. Every month, when I received the few dollars of living expenses from my adoptive father, I would count them for half a day, and sometimes I would cry secretly. My adoptive mother often told me: Mom has lived a lot of life in this life! It's not a good thing to reach out and ask someone for money. My child can't be like my mother, you have to study, you must have a job in the future, and you have to fight for your mother! "These words that my adoptive mother told me had a great impact on me. At this time, my adoptive mother would take out the burden of blue and white flowers from the box, let me see the old clothes she had prepared for herself and a wad of money wrapped in a pink handkerchief, and said to me: "My child remembers, this money was saved by my mother to make a dowry for you, and this old clothes, when my mother is leaving, you can let the second aunt put it on for my mother!" I don't know how many times I have told me like this, and every time I hear my adoptive mother say these words, I will be scared and sad. Every time, I said to my adoptive mother, "Mom, I don't want you to go, I don't want you to leave me, I will be obedient!" "My adoptive mother and I hugged each other and cried, and this scene has become a scene that our mother and daughter will recur every once in a while.
In the fall of the year I was seven years old, the father of my adoptive ex-wife died. Because the adoptive mother is the continuation. My adoptive mother had to go to pay her filial piety, but she was sick and couldn't go, so I asked me to go on her behalf. Later that day, it was raining, and I slid step by step to the neighboring village to pay my respects. I fell several times on the mountain road, and I rolled like a mud monkey, but the offerings I was holding in my arms were intact. When I stood in front of the coffin of the "old man", everyone present was moved. Especially after I put the steamed buns with red dots in the basket on the offering table, lay on the ground and kowtow three times, people are saying: Look how sensible this "granddaughter" is! The steward wanted to keep me for dinner, but I didn't dare to stay, because it was getting dark, and I had to go back. On the way back, I was a little scared and wanted to walk quickly, but my legs didn't obey me, and my shoes were old, so I simply walked barefoot. In autumn, the mountain road was cold, and I shivered with cold. The wind in my ears is terrifying. Remembering that the old people said that there were wolves in the mountains, I was even more scared, I had goosebumps, my legs were weak, I fell into the jujube tree on the side of the road, and my legs were pierced with blood. There were black holes around, and I was running like a rabbit. When I was almost at the entrance of the village, I saw a lantern flickering, and when I looked closely, I saw that it was my adoptive mother standing in the wind in her coat, and I shouted as if I had seen a savior: "Mom! He threw himself into the arms of his adoptive mother and began to cry uncontrollably. "My child has suffered too much at a young age, and my mother is sorry for you! The adoptive mother cried. I stopped crying and hugged my mother tightly, my mother's arms were so warm!
When I was fifteen years old, my adoptive mother was gone, and ever since then, I used to say to myself, "Mom, I miss you!" ”