the last priest

Why do I say that I have the deepest memory of raspberries, because a lot of raspberries grew at the place where the bridge was originally built, and my love for this thing made me have a special liking for that place.But I wanted to go, but I didn’t dare to go, because if my grandma found out, I would definitely be beaten, because there is another special thing about raspberries, that is, they like to grow on old graves.

There is a bend, and inside the bend is a house, and the road from my door just leads to that bend.That bend is very big, with a nearly ninety-degree turn, and it is very cloudy, the sun can't shine on that place very early, so the snow in winter in that place is always the latest.

For me, the fear of a grave bag is far less than the temptation of raspberries. My grandfather used to pick it for me, but when my grandfather is gone, I pick it myself.Many times I can see an old woman sitting on that bend, and I have called her, but she ignores me and always sits in that position with a cane.

I don't see her very often, she only goes there on some special days. I don't remember who has such an old lady in the village, so I often say to my mother: "Mom, the crooked one above Who is the old lady sitting up there?"

My mother would take a look at it at first, but then she ignored me. She thought I was talking nonsense. Sometimes I heard her say to my father in a crying voice: "This child is always talking. No matter what, you don’t want to find a way to invite someone to show him.”

At that time, my father also went to find Cha Wenbin, but he was not there. I heard from my grandmother that he had gone to another place. Later, my mother pretended not to see the old lady I kept mentioning.

Around the time when the bridge was about to be erected, my father heard that Cha Wenbin had returned, so he put down his work and hurried to look for him. At that time, Cha Wenbin looked very different from before. Same again.

When he saw me in the past, he would always touch my head with his hand, or pinch my face, as if I had a special feeling for him, but when I saw him again, he stretched out his left hand to touch my face. He touched my head but stopped in the air without falling, and switched to his right hand again.

When I was eating, I saw two fingers on his left hand were always bent in the palm of his hand, so I followed suit, thinking that posture was very interesting.

Cha Wenbin looked at the road for my dad, and told him to move the tap water outlet at the door from the right to the left, and build a small pool at the intersection, which he said was used to attract dragons.

Dad told Zha Wenbin about my constant nagging at home, Zha Wenbin went to answer Dad, but came to me and asked me: "Xiao Yi, are you afraid when you see that mother-in-law?"

I murmured and said, "I'm not afraid, but she ignores me every time I call her."

Then Cha Wenbin looked at me and laughed, and then told Abba to check the location of the bridge.

The river is not wide, only about five or six meters. There is a small stream in our place, and the river water is also very clear. It is said that the river channel was quite deep a few decades ago. At that time, a barrage would be erected every 100 meters.At that time, there were no decent roads in the mountains, only a narrow path, and the people who depended on the mountains and cannibals had no choice but to transport some resources out by water. When the flood season came, they would be used to transport bamboo and wood in the mountains, so many places also It is a river channel that was artificially opened up later.

My father is the youngest of my brothers and sisters. At that time, the hard work of walking the waterway was done by the uncles. It took half a month to float in the river to send the strings of bamboo rafts to the small port. Then I took the money and exchanged it for some daily necessities.It is said that when the river was widened, many old tombs were found on both sides. In those careless times, unowned tombs were usually destroyed.

The bend where the bridge was built was about 70 meters away from my house. At that time, it was still a dirt road. My father planned to build ridges on both sides of the river with cement and stones. Only this kind of stone ridges can resist flooding season. If it is washed away, such a bridge will be strong.

Zha Wenbin looked at the location, and then said to my dad: "Boy, it's good to build a bridge in this place, but there are also good ideas. I just give you a suggestion. It's up to you to decide what to do."

Abba said this to Cha Wenbin at the time: "I must build the bridge, and I have to build it myself for the sake of it." When the bridge was built, I remember that Abba was in charge of borrowing money from others, and it was him It was the first time in his life to ask someone to borrow money, and it was also the last time. He often said: People live in this world for a face, and they cannot be looked down upon.

Cha Wenbin pointed to the high mountain on the opposite side and said: "It can be built if it is necessary. After the bridge is built, the dragon here will follow this ridge to your house. The pond I asked you to build is for it." Drinking water."

On the opposite side of my hometown is a crooked mountain, and I don’t know where the other end stretches to, but the foot of the mountain falls on this bend. Cha Wenbin said that this is the head of a dragon. Originally, the dragon could drink the stream. The water in the river, but when you pass the bridge, the dragon has to go up the bridge, and that is my home.

Hearing what he said, Dad felt so beautiful in his heart, so he said: "This is a good thing, the dragon has been led to the house."

But Cha Wenbin shook his head and said: "This dragon is a water dragon. It takes care of the rainwater of this generation. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it goes to other places. When it is there, your home is naturally a treasured place of geomantic omen, but If it is not there, this bridge will become the Naihe Bridge within a hundred miles. If the dragon road is empty, it will become a yin and yang road. That is to say, when it rains, the dragon is not there. It’s for the dead, people in your family can go because they borrow your way, but if other people come to go, it’s easy to cause accidents, there are ways, it’s okay to put a pair of stone lions on the bridge, Let the dragon guard when he is away."

But we need to add a pair of stone lions. At that time, the family had no money left, and the borrowed money was just enough for a project. The price of a pair of stone lions is not cheap. Those things are only available at the door of very rich and wealthy families. , My family didn't have this condition at all at that time.

But Abba decided to build a bridge here.

Because there were not many guests who came to my house at that time, why?One is that the place is remote, not near the horse, and it is not convenient for people to come to visit; the other is that the main reason is that the family is poor, and the old foundation of the family is weak. At that time, there was no one to develop the private economy in my hometown, which is far from what it is now. conditions of.In the era of relying on strength to eat, the family had less labor, so they were naturally poor, and people looked down on them, so they were unwilling to come to play.

The road had already been repaired at that time, as long as the bridge was erected, it would be considered complete.If you want to change the place, you have to waste your energy, and the project of building a road is quite large.So at that time, Dad hesitated for a while, thinking that no one would come to the house to play on a rainy night, so he decided to do it here.

Later, the bridge was completed on schedule. As Cha Wenbin said, my family's fortunes began to prosper in those years, and the hat of the poor was quickly removed.As soon as this person got rich, more people started playing, and something happened, but that was a year later.

Then there was my problem, which was the top priority for the family at that time. A child was always suspicious and said irrelevant words, and the family members were also afraid, because that year I started to be like this after I entered the General Temple by mistake. , Dad thinks there is still something unclean on my body.

At night, Cha Wenbin took me out and refused to let my father follow. Although my father was worried, he had no choice but to let him go.

Zha Wenbin put me on the unfinished bridge, and then asked me with a smile: "Xiao Yi, are you afraid that uncle will leave you here alone?"

"Not afraid!" I replied like this.

Then he gave me a copper coin and asked me to hold it in the palm of my hand and said: "The uncle is going back first, you can play here alone for a while, if you get scared, throw the copper coin in your hand into the river, understand? "

I nodded and he left.

At that time, it was about to enter the summer season, and the two favorite insects of rural children began to come out, one was fireflies, and the other was crickets.

The night was very dark, but the moon was very round, illuminating the land pale and pale.I don’t know if it’s because my eyesight is particularly good, or it’s really too white. I can see the crickets bouncing around in the grass, so I catch them. When I catch the crickets, I dig a hole in the ground and throw them in, let them fight. .When I was young, I never knew what it meant to be afraid, I just thought it was fun to play alone.

Not long after, I saw the old woman on the opposite side come out again. She was still sitting there, seeming to be looking at me, and I was looking at her too.At that time, in order to facilitate crossing the river, my father built a simple bamboo bridge on the bridge. People walking on it would make a "squeak, squeak" sound, tremble a little, and was very unstable.

I walked over and walked to the side of the begging mother-in-law, then opened my little hand and showed her two crickets.I don't know why I did this, probably to get her attention, the mother-in-law laughed, and I laughed too.

Then I asked her, "Why do you keep sitting here?"

The mother-in-law said: "Because this is my home."

I looked around and saw that there were no extra houses here, but there was an old grave next to it, where my grandfather often picked raspberries.