Sitting and forgetting longevity

Chapter 747 The Ferryman

On the banks of the Nulong River, there is a village called Yanshang Village. There are 58 households in the village, and they can barely live and work in peace and contentment.Since the Nulong River's once-in-a-century flood flooded the lower Heshang and Hexia villages half a year ago, Yanshang Village is the closest village to the big river.

Recently, a new thing happened in the village. A few men who lost their homes in the two villages below were coerced by others to become robbers who robbed their way, but they came back a few days ago. Quite a lot.

One day, a few village women who were doing laundry by the river suddenly noticed a dark shadow appearing on the river surface, which turned out to be a rickety boat, and they all stopped their work in amazement.

The Nulong River is like a dragon that is angry all the time. The water on the river is rough, the waves are high, and there are many dangerous shoals. Only the most experienced boatman can't control it.

However, when there was a flood last time, the only boat crossing the river nearby was overturned, and the old boatman who punted the boat was swept away without a trace.

Therefore, the two sides of the river have been disconnected for several months. Even if they want to see relatives on the other side, they have to go around a hundred miles away.

The village women stopped doing laundry, and gathered together to point and tiptoe to look at the boat. They saw that the boat was moving slowly in the rapids, but it seemed very safe, and gradually approached.

"Oh, what a handsome boy!"

"Hee hee hee, Mrs. Chunhua's eyes are sharp, she can tell that young man is handsome at a glance!"

"It's as if you didn't stare at his face. If you didn't look at that pair of tricks, you would almost stick to him! Tsk tsk, thin and thin, it looks very strong, it must be more than two taels of meat!"

"Huang Er's family, your Huang Er is as strong as a bear, and he hasn't plowed your land at night."

Several village women joked with each other unscrupulously, but their eyes were all on the boat that was getting closer.I saw the young man holding the oar at the bow of the boat raised his head, with a simple and shy smile on his handsome face.

"Yo yo yo!"

All the women in the village shouted, and Mrs. Chunhua, who was the hottest, shouted loudly, "Young man, where did you come from, and where are you going?"

The young man smiled shyly and pulled the boat to the shore: "Auntie, is this Yanshang Village?"

"Yes!" Mrs. Chunhua replied, and several village women enthusiastically stepped forward to help pull the rope, and tied it to the wooden stake that had been standing on the bank.

"What are you doing in our village? Seeing that you are white and clean, are you a scholar from some family?"

"I, I'm not a scholar." The young man blushed from the embarrassment of several village women: "I, I'm a boatman. I heard that there are no river boats in this section of the river, so I want to come here to make a living..."

These words surprised the village women, and they all shook their heads to express that they didn't look like it.

However, when the young man struggled to get off the boat, everyone realized that he was lame in one leg. He didn't notice it when he was sitting on the boat before, and this walking became obvious.

Surprised by the villagers, they inevitably showed pitiful eyes, and then began to inquire about each other's origins from head to toe.

After the young man narrated, he found out that his surname was Ouyang, and that he had a name Zhuzi that did not match his appearance. This year, three generations of his family were punters, and they were from Jinsha Village in the upper reaches of the Nulong River.

The flood that happened half a year ago also submerged Jinsha Village. Most of the people in the village fed the Dragon Lord, and none of the ten survived. Zhuzi's family died and he was the only one left.

Jinsha Village was naturally disbanded, and the pillars had nowhere to go. Hearing that there were no punters in Yanshang Village, he thought of coming here to make a living.

Zhuzi's eyes turned red as he spoke, and the village women also wiped away their tears.They are all people who have lived by the big river for generations, and their feelings are common.

Aunt Chunhua patted her thigh: "Is your old man called Shuanzi, and he has been boating on the Qimang Mountain upstream for decades? No wonder you got it! Seeing how well you handle the boat, it turns out to be a family tradition."

Neighbors who are separated by ten miles or eight villages know each other's background, Zhuzi is not surprised, just nodded.

On the contrary, Second Aunt Huang stomped her feet suddenly, and said angrily, "I don't know what's wrong with this world! The ancestors were implicated in the killings among those immortal families, and lived in fear all day long. It was easy to settle down for a few years. It's not a plague, it's a flood, how can you live like this!"

"Alas!"

All of a sudden, there was a sound of sighs, the world was difficult, and it was mortals like them who suffered the most.He has no power and no power, he depends on the sky to eat, and a random rainstorm can drown a few people to death.

The pillar looked to the left and then to the right, a little at a loss.

Mrs. Chunhua raised a pair of calloused hands and patted him vigorously: "It's okay, it's okay! God can't starve to death. I think you were very stable when you just got here. You have the skill of steering a boat." , the rivers and rivers are up to you! Walk around, follow the aunts to find the village chief!"

The village women were very enthusiastic, and they picked up the clothes basin one after another and dragged him to the village.Things went smoothly afterwards, and the village chief agreed to him docking the ferry in Yanshang Village, but he had to check his work first.

After all, the Nulong River is no different from those calm lakes and creeks. The water flow is extremely fast, and there are dark eddies underwater, so it's useless for you to swim for a long time.If the boat capsizes on the river, the lives of the people on the boat may be confessed.

There was nothing to do in the countryside, so almost the whole village went to the river to watch the excitement.Although Zhuzi was a bit shy, his temperament was calm, and the boat he was driving was even more stable, causing the villagers to raise their thumbs up one after another, saying that he had never seen such a good boat before, making people think it was not on the Nulong River!
Since then, Zhuzi has been doing the work of ferrying people across the river, punting the boat during the day and living on the boat at night.The boat fee is not expensive, one copper coin per person, and you can use things without copper coins, such as food, vegetables, fruits, and wild animals.

It's just that the river is several miles wide and the water is fast. His small boat can only carry a dozen people when it is full, so he has to go back and forth twice a day, barely making ends meet.After two years like this, several villages on both sides of the strait knew that he was alive and well and had never had any accidents, and they were even willing to come from afar to take his ferry.

There was nothing to do on the river, so it was inevitable to gossip, so Zhuzi sat in the bow of the boat and rowed the oars all day long, but he knew everything about the ten miles and eight villages.

Which family had a grandson, which family died, which family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law fought every day, which family's man sneaked into the widow's house behind his back, and he was full of ears.He even became acquainted with these neighbors, and gradually some people called him for help during weddings and weddings at home, and had a meal of wine by the way.

It's just that every time this happens, Zhu Zi feels strange.Like the indifference of the onlookers, but also like the feeling of empathy, the life, old age, sickness, death, joys and sorrows of others weighed lightly and heavily on his heart, making him often stare at the endless river in a daze, but he couldn't tell what he was thinking.

It seems that I have thought a lot, and it seems that I have not thought about anything, such as looking at the moon in the water, looking at the flowers in the drunk, everything seems to be separated by a layer of veil.

He has an inexplicable feeling that he should be sitting on the bow of the boat so lonely but not lonely every day, crossing the river during the day, listening to all the things in the world, watching the water and listening to the waves at night, and chewing those incomprehensible emotions alone .

A ferryman is a person who transports people from one shore to the other by boat.People on the boat intersect during this journey, but become passers-by in each other's lives after the journey is over.

But there are always accidents, such as people who quietly passed away in the middle of a journey, but left their souls on board forever.For example, people who don't want to reach the other side, but just want to stop in the middle of the river.

Zhu Zi was concentrating on rowing the oars, but he felt a shadow flashing out of the corner of his eye. When he turned his head, he saw a young woman rushing out of the cabin and jumping into the river with a determined face!
At that moment, he didn't know where he was so fast, he rushed over in the blink of an eye, and grabbed the opponent's collar!
At this time, the other people in the cabin reacted and screamed everywhere.

"Jumped into the river, someone jumped into the river!"

Most of the pillar's body was dragged overboard, and he used his other hand to cling to the cabin in an emergency.The turbulent river suddenly rolled up, as if seeing a prey, and wanted to pull him down the river to swallow him.

But the girl raised her head and looked at him with eyes full of hatred and anger: "Let go! Hand!"

(End of this chapter)