Busy traffic, noisy siren, a bustling day in the red dust, at the end of a burning cloud, slowly calmed down, the night slowly fell, Xixi night breeze lifted my homesickness. Looking up at the light blue starry sky above my head, it is gentle and quiet, recalling the hurry for a long time, everything is like quicksand between my fingers.
Only my hometown and my relatives always follow me like a shadow… In my
memory, there is a huge stone in my hometown, that shape, that charm, and a big toad, sitting under the green hills and above the clear stream, with muscular eyes. Turning around, examining the coming and going, all kinds of passers-by. This place is also named “Toad God”.
Toad God is the only way for me to go to elementary school. At that time, on the way to and from school, the teacher would assign a classmate to be the captain of the road, responsible for the safety of the classmates back and forth.
Every summer, the calls of the frogs living in the rice fields and lurking in the grass along the river and the singing of the students are like a quiet and harmonious field song. It is the most perfect and beautiful music combination in nature. , This is also the voice of hope that farmers love to listen to.
On the road, Captain Lu has absolute rights. In summer, Captain Lu would always tell everyone to turn right and left, stand still, and rest for a while at Toad God. Then, he ingeniously asked the students to cross the creek in a long jump or a race. According to the width of the creek, the male students are designated to jump three times and the female students four jumps to arrive. Classmates who have passed will throw small sand on their inconsistent companions in the stream to punish the laggards.
After passing the creek, the classmates will build houses under the belly of the toad, build a stove, find small pieces of stone to make shovel and plates, and play with the house; some classmates imitate the farmer’s uncle plowing and planting, and coffering the river weir among the rice paddies. , Dig ponds and divert water to irrigate fertile fields. A puddle of sand was let up by the students, and they had a great time.
There are many small terraced fields near Toad God. In May and June every year, within a few days of planting the seedlings, the growth gradually becomes vigorous, and the mud in the fields turns from yellow to black. At this time, the persimmons on the tree almost turned from green to yellow. The students would climb up the persimmon tree, and their pockets would be filled with picked golden persimmons. Then, bury them in the field, level the mud with your small hands, and mark each with a different mark. The peasants’ uncles and aunts can’t see them, and they don’t confuse each other. On the third day, everyone picked out the refined persimmons, washed them with stream water, and sat under the toad belly, each standing out to see who had the sweetest and most crispy persimmons.
One morning, the class bell rang. I was worried that I would be punished for being late. I raised my foot and kicked the slow-running classmate in front of me. Unfortunately, I was spotted by the teacher holding the textbook. After school, I was left behind by the teacher and criticized. As I couldn’t keep up with the team, I was very careful along the way, paying special attention to the small animals on the side of the road, worrying about being hurt by them.
When I walked to the Toad God Creek, I saw a small purple snake on the beach in the middle of the stream, with many claws sticking out on both sides of its belly. I thought to myself, I have never seen or heard of snakes having claws! Could it be wrong? I rubbed my eyes vigorously and opened them again, yeah! That’s right, it’s true. I was frightened in a cold sweat and ran away. Unable to choose my way, I tripped my head on the downhill stone, my knee was bloody, and the pain was unbearable, but I still insisted on running. After I got home, I was incoherent and told my grandma what happened. Grandma smiled and said, “Why don’t you use your hands to grab your hair? You can just grab and say, you don’t have as many claws as mine, and you don’t have as many claws as mine! It will run away with anger.”
Seeing grandma calm down I was a little angry, and said, “Your granddaughter was so frightened, and her kneecap was swollen like a small bowl, can you still laugh?” I turned around to talk to my father and mother, they just said lightly : “It’s okay, go do your homework.” I was so disappointed that I had to walk into my room obediently. But, how can I have the mind to do homework! Why are they not surprised when they clearly see strange things? I put down my schoolbag and walked out of the room, only listening to my mother whispering: “What should I do? The child sees something that shouldn’t be seen, so quickly find a gentleman and ask.” Only my father said, “It’s okay, our child My life is too big!” Hearing this, I walked back to the room with confidence, hummed a little tune, and started to do my homework.
The strange thing is that there is a small triangular rice field next to the thigh of Toad God. Whether I go to school or after school, as long as I look at the corner of the rice field, there will be a snake with its head held up and looking at me intently. Actually, I’m very afraid of snakes, but I can’t help but look at it. I don’t believe it keeps this attitude, but every time I end up in failure. This is the same throughout this season every year, until the farmers’ uncles and aunts have harvested the rice until I graduate from elementary school.
When I was in middle school, I started to live on campus and went home once every two weeks. Every time I go home, I see my mother burning the fire, and my father holding the pot, boiling meat and buns for me. My brother and I would always stand next to the pot, and my father would take bones from the pot from time to time, so let us alleviate our greed. The buns made by my father are browned and well-proportioned. The buns are really top-notch. When the meal is ready, the family gathers around a small square table, happiness and warmth are self-evident.
I love ancient poems and modern poetry. I have some creations in my spare time, and I write the most about butterflies and dragonflies. For example, in “The Beautiful Scenery of the Mae on the Han River”, it writes “Yangliu and White Clouds on the upper boundary, the center of the dragonfly and butterfly show”, “The dream of butterflies near the water, and the wild flowers in Linxi all night”; in “The Thoughts of Hometown” “In the middle of the night, the cicadas and crickets are in harmony, and butterflies and dragonflies dance together to make their debut” and so on. These materials are derived from the sounds of nature heard and the beautiful scenes seen on the way to school.
As time passed, the past gradually faded, blurred, or disappeared. Maybe the years are peaceful and good. I will always use pen and ink to depict the weather-beaten annual rings and express the long-missed hometown and relatives after dinner.
