Reminder before reading: This article is based on reality and contains fictional creations.
In 2013, my grandmother passed away due to illness. I set off from Suzhou to return to my hometown and went to my grandmother's old house to collect my grandmother's relics, which can be regarded as a memory.
When my mother heard the news, she waited for me early in the morning under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village.
This village is called Sanhuai Village, this is a quiet, simple small village, there are three very old locust trees in the village, each of which is so thick that three or four adults hug each other, it is said that they have a history of hundreds of years, and the name of Sanhuai Village also comes from this.
One is at the entrance of the village, and there is an ancient tomb under the tree, which is said to be buried in an ancient person, and there are two stone lions. Many red ropes are tied to the trees, and many people burn incense here and are also a sign of the village's Hot Spot Engine program for sexual activities. One is on the edge of the only pond in the village, and the other is in the backyard of my grandmother's old house. But the backyard was locked up along with the old house, and for as long as I can remember, my grandmother never let me near the old house.
Mother, I'm home. I said with tears in my eyes. Because of work, I couldn't make it to the last time I saw my grandmother, which has become an eternal regret in my heart.
Just come back, your grandmother won't blame you. Good boy, let's go home. "My mother took my hand and kept wiping her tears.
I went back to my grandmother's old house, a typical rural courtyard house, where the rusty lock in the backyard was split by my uncle after my grandmother passed away.
When my grandmother was alive, the door was locked, my uncle was always depressed, and the good house was not leaking but locked, full of sundries and not for people to live in, and the family was crowded into a few dilapidated low houses in the front yard.
Now that his grandmother is gone, he can't wait to split the lock, planning to contact the excavator to bulldoze the old house and build a small western-style building in a few days. His mother stopped him many times, but he didn't listen.
When I was a child, I was very naughty, and I secretly climbed into the backyard of the old house with my friends in the village and played under the old locust tree for a long time. As a result, my friends and I all had a fever that night.
My grandmother asked me if I had gone to the backyard of the old house. I nodded weakly. Later, my grandmother took the key to open the lock in the backyard and scolded the trees in the yard, and it was the first time I knew that the kind grandmother would actually scold people, and the scolding was very ugly.
Then I slept in a daze for a while, and the fever subsided inexplicably. My grandmother told me solemnly that I was not allowed to go to the backyard next time. That's all I had about the old locust tree.
After many years, I once again saw the locust tree behind the old house, which stood for a hundred years and still flourished. According to common sense, a century-old towering tree usually grows very slowly, and the ancient tree in front of me is actually much thicker than the last time I came, I don't know if it's my illusion.
My mother said that I would stay for a day today, pack some things, and then go to my grandmother's grave tomorrow to burn some paper, and then she would go back to Suzhou with me the day after tomorrow.
The old house was airtight all year round, very dark and damp, and the corners were full of dust, and the only thing that surprised me was that although there was a lot of dust, there was not a single cobweb.
The furnishings in the house are very simple, there are a few portraits of *** pasted on the mottled wall, a few worn-out enamel cups are placed on the table, and there are a few useless broken baskets hanging on the beams, which are so broken that they can't be used, but my grandmother is very thrifty and still reluctant to throw them.
You can vaguely feel the traces of my grandmother's life here in the 80s.
I opened an old vermilion cabinet that had long since been painted, and out of it came a rattan ball, which bounced a few times, gurgled and rolled around, and finally stopped at my mother's feet.
This is a toy I used to have when I was a child, or did your grandmother make it herself? The mother was stunned, and a rare smile appeared on her face.
I took out another incense burner from the cupboard, inside.