Hometown Prose: Selling Horses

It is a long and painful process for my father to have a horse at home to have no horse, from one horse to three horses, and from raising horses to selling them.

As long as I can remember, my father has kept five horses and a mule since he entered the society. More accurately, it's four horses and one song. Because most of the time, the first old horse was put by my uncle, raised by my uncle, fed by my uncle, and got up early to drink water. ...

The old horse was given to my family after the dissolution of the agricultural cooperative. As for how to divide it, I don't know why I divided a horse instead of a cow or a few sheep or one. The old horse came to this house earlier than me, or she wouldn't be too old to get up. The stable is next to the east wing, where my mother and I live. My father is a barefoot doctor and stays in the drugstore most nights. I seem to have grown up with the sound of my old horse chewing grass, but now the situation has changed, and the sound of chewing grass often rings in my ears, crisp!

If you can't hear it chewing grass in the middle of the night, you can't get up. At this time, you will ask your neighbors for help. Lift, lift, lift, after a nervous panic, it stood up again, sniffed and sniffed close to the manger, as if meeting again after a long separation, then pulled the forage with its lips, and then slowly began to eat. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

You can see how old the mare is. When she was young, she must be as energetic as those young and middle-aged laborers. Alas, it's a pity that she is old.

It is such a weak old horse that gave birth to a pony in our family on a spring afternoon. When I came back from school, I saw the pony stand up trembling and put its head under the old horse's crotch to eat. I couldn't believe it was the old horse's flesh and blood. It turns out that every mother is great. I really shouldn't underestimate it. Look at the pony again, it's so cute, like a deer, people can't help but want to touch or hug.

Sure enough, my uncle picked me up from behind, and I tentatively touched the furry forehead of a pony.

Late one night after autumn, the old horse fell in the stable and never got up again. Uncle opened the door of the stable in the morning, only to see the daughter pony of the old horse standing quietly next to it. He saw someone come in, and his big bright eyes looked at him. At this time, the old horse was already stiff.

Pony has been alive and kicking, often mixed with uncle's big sheep, very proud, like a princess among nobles, so flamboyant and proud. Occasionally running in the Woods at the head of the village, a princess who has left the palace courtyard, facing nature, can't feel her mood. Only by spinning, running and shouting can she express infinite joy. As time goes by, the foal grows up day by day.

It stands to reason that it is time for the two-year-old princess to train to do farm work, such as plowing, transporting wheat and dung, building a cart and riding a horse. However, under the obstruction of her uncle, she said that she was still young and easy to earn tuberculosis, leaving sequelae. When the little princess was three years old, that is, when she was an adult, she knew nothing, nothing but mischief among the sheep. Children mingle with sheep. Even when grazing, uncle pulls the reins and leads them to graze behind the sheep, or specially selects fertile places such as ridges or corners of fields for him to enjoy. Later, my father scolded my uncle in a rage. Look, he used to spoil you. ...

If you eat alone, you will not belong to the flock when you grow up. As long as it is mixed with other horses in the village, it kicks and bites, just like an unruly princess who ignores any mules and horses. Sometimes people are afraid to go near it.

At this time, the uncle family will move to Longhu. Before uncle left, he sold all the cash in the house. In my mother's words, you can't sell the stones, or he will tear down the stones on two broken walls of several rotten houses and sell them. Originally, the family was poor and there was nothing to sell. He has sold cattle and sheep, sold a litter of broken bones (pig wretched) that have just given birth to a month, and the pig woman (sow) is all in his plan. Persuaded and scolded by several old people in the village, he gave up the idea and sold several sacks of wool on the beams. The village cadres said that they left the little princess to us. As the saying goes, a good family is afraid of three points, and my family is only two points, just like a knife gouging out a person's bones, and poor muscles hurt. Father put his hands on his chest and said nothing.

The little princess stayed, but my nightmare with my family has just begun.

There's nothing wrong with not working and being gregarious. The key is that it will eat grass quietly on the mountain when it is in a good mood. Once it is crazy, it pulls the reins and runs wild, running several mountains and villages. The problem is that it has become wild, whether it is crops, wild depressions or jungles, it just looks up and runs. When it is exhausted, we can get close to the reins. If it wants to run, we can catch it.

One summer vacation, I went to see my seriously ill grandfather. He hasn't said much for several days. When he saw me come in, he sat up and taught me a lesson. I heard that your dad has a tiger. Can I keep it? Did you fly?

Provoked a room full of people to burst into laughter. One side of the aunt (menstruation) ridicule, you see this old man thiamine, sick all confused, I Li Jiage busy spanking, no time for pension.

The days of raising horses and causing trouble lasted for two years. A wise father can't be poked in the back because of a horse. April and May are the season when crops blossom and bear fruit. Who wants their crops to be wandered by a horse? Someone will pull the throat all the way, let go and leave you (Dad) alone. ...

It was my dad who finally made up his mind to sell after being insulted countless times!

Unfortunately, the princess is pregnant. In view of this, my father endured humiliation and kept it for another year until it gave birth to a black mule. Father and uncle discussed the exchange, cow for cow, horse for horse, and that's settled.

My uncle is definitely the head of the wheat field, and he is in his prime, and he is not afraid that he can't control a horse. My uncle's horse has yellow hair and a white "S" on his forehead. According to records, he is only two years old. He is a princess, a shy princess.

On the day my uncle came to my house to exchange money, the little princess followed my uncle all the way without pulling the reins. Our family is as happy as a holiday.

From then on, I said goodbye to the insult caused by horses.

In this way, the yellow princess and a mule less than one year old became important members of this family. In the next ten years, they became indispensable partners in our lives. Without them, our life would be very difficult. To some extent, with the arrival of George W. Huang Ma, our family has lived a stable and practical life.

two

Time has entered 2003.

During this period, Huang Ma Jr. became a veritable mother. Her first child gave birth to a prince. His coat color and appearance were exactly the same as his mother's. Even the size and shape of the "S" on his forehead seemed to be cut from his mother's head and reattached. The only difference is his personality. He is impatient. When he walks, he holds his head high and his steps are fast and powerful. Unlike her mother, she walks with her eyes looking straight ahead, her steps are elegant and steady, and she always looks dignified and calm.

When Wang Zigang lived to be an adult and was able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of family, he died of poisoning.

In those years, people in the village lived a fairly comfortable life, at least they didn't have to go hungry. In Man Cang, every household has food, and bags filled with wheat pile up into mountains. Many people have beams on their bags. The more food there is, the more rats there are. People think that cats don't pull mice now, so they have to use rat poison on a large scale. Careful people, the wheat mixed with rat poison, wait for a period of time, when the mouse has not finished eating, and the efficacy is similar, sweep it into a pile with a broom, carry it out with a shovel, and find a place to dig a hole and bury it. Careless, careless people go out to get a shovel, under the ridge of the door, under the ridge of the field, outside the courtyard wall, which one should it be? What's more, like a field, it is raised high and blown everywhere by the wind.

I don't know who got a thousand knives and dumped the wheat mixed with rat poison on the slope of the school playground, which was eaten by the passing prince.

When father found out, it was too late. Scarlet blood oozed from the corners of the eyes and nostrils of the prince. His eyes are lying on the courtyard dam at home, his bulging stomach is falling, and white steam is emitted from his nostrils, mixed with white foam and blood foam. ...

The dying prince was bought by a cattle dealer in the village. After paying 400 yuan, I drove the tractor when I left, and said loudly in the click of the diesel engine that I should run quickly and pull it into the water to see if I could get a knife. No, the bloodless meat is red and sizzling, and no one wants it!

What the cattle dealer said was originally addressed to his father, but his father didn't listen and turned into the house. Mother hid in the corner of the yard and quietly wiped her tears. There are only three or five children, watching the excitement around the tractor.

Without the horse, the house was empty, like a relative who often stayed with his family, and suddenly disappeared, making those who stayed steep and cool.

Fortunately, there are black mules and little Huang Ma. No, she has grown from a princess to a young woman with superb skills, but she is not old enough. I don't have the heart to call her "Old Yellow Horse".

The spring breeze of returning farmland to forests has blown through this land one after another, and seven years have passed unconsciously. On that day, there was not much land for farmers to cultivate. The land in the semi-depression near the mountain, the seabuckthorn tree and larch planted that year, has been higher than the head.

My family has only two acres of land in Baozi Mountain and three acres in Xiachuan. After this year, I will retire. Since the announcement of the relocation policy, people can't wait to fly away from the mountains and live in a flat and wide place.

After autumn, under the mother's repeated advice and nagging, my father made up his mind to sell the black mule first. Also, the land is gone, and we have to mow the grass and feed the horses on sunny and cloudy days. Because of the pharmacy, my father is often as busy as a bee, and all the housework has to be handled by my mother. ...

Huang Ma Jr. became the only man in the family. First the prince left, then the black mule left. Huang Ma Jr. seems to have been hit. He moped all day, lowered his head, walked slowly, and didn't even bother to eat grass. Without a mouth, he turned to look out of the window of the stable from time to time, and then gave a weak cry: Hmm-hum! Like a moan, like a lonely sigh.

It was a long time before she regained her spirits and began to eat grass normally. ...

Unexpectedly, in 2004, the ecological migration of Tai Su Village began.

Before moving out, my father had to make up his mind again to sell Huang Ma Jr., who accompanied our family.

Little Huang Ma seemed to have a premonition that he was about to leave, and he was crying all day. At ordinary times, the grass with a backpack is clean until dawn, and the manger is like being licked, sometimes it is not enough. It either screamed or scratched the ground of the stable with its front hoof, so the soft-hearted father had to get off the kang, put on his coat and add a backpack. Now it's dawn, and my father pushed open the stable door. The grass in the trough seems to have not moved. Huang Ma turned and looked at his father with watery eyes.

When the land was gone, my father took the horse to the beach at the entrance of the village as soon as he was free. Light a cigarette, sit down and watch Huang Ma chew grass. In the past, little Huang Ma ate grass very cleanly, aiming at the grass around his mouth. When her lips were caught, the grass got between her teeth. Only when she heard a bang, little Huang Ma's cheeks stirred up up and down ... Now, she is facing the grass, taking two or three sips of her lips, and she is not in a hurry to bite with her teeth. She blew out two hot gases from her nostrils, blew twice, loosened her lips, shook her head and walked away, facing the greed and hunger of the grass before. My father once suspected that she was ill and her stomach was uncomfortable, so he put his ear close to her abdomen and listened. No, the noise in her stomach is normal, and she keeps cooing, which means her digestive system is normal. Why isn't it delicious? Still not at ease, open her mouth again and look at her mouth. The tooth flower is red, the upper and lower jaws are normal in color, the red part is red, and the black part is black. 12 front teeth and 24 molars are fine. They are in their prime of life and should be able to eat and drink. Why?

Still worried, I took it home and listened to it twice with a stethoscope, and it was still normal.

Mother saw the clue early and was silent. It was because of her father's worry that she told the truth that Huang Ma Jr. ate grass badly.

You have a retired horse and you can't see this. Although she can't speak, she actually knows everything. She had a premonition that we were going to sell her, and she felt uncomfortable, reluctant to leave and homesick. Don't talk about her. When the doll (I) is not at school, you eat a bowl of rice at night and stay up all night. ...

If my father always hears that my mother betrayed him, he will say that this woman talks a lot.

But that day, my father was sitting on the counter, smoking thoughtfully and looking at Huang Ma. He wagged his tail in the yard and didn't say a word.

Father is becoming more and more diligent. Whenever he is free, he takes off the shaving brush hanging under the eaves and combs his hair, especially the horse's mane, from the neck to the ponytail. Father took the trouble to comb again and again. As long as the ordinary washing machine soil is pulled back by a rack truck, it falls in front of the stable, throws a few shovels in it, and simply pulls it, even if it is finished. It's different now. I patted the soil that fell at the door back with a shovel, threw it into the stable, spread it out with a shovel, spread it out with a shovel, and stepped on it with my feet. Before you walk out of the stable, make sure that the soil is good enough and there is enough cotton. Going to the mountain to mow the night grass for Huang Ma Jr. is no longer so casual and simple, and it is no longer perfunctory with weeds like Artemisia selengensis. He specially picked a large bundle of grass that Huang Ma Jr. likes to eat, such as Haloxylon ammodendron, grey vegetables, Miscanthus, and wild alfalfa, and came back wobbly. As the hay cutting spear gets shorter and shorter, it seems reassuring.

This long process is a process of careful care and farewell. Father talks a lot less. When he is free, he either smokes or feeds the horses.

One autumn morning, Xiao Bai, a businessman from Jingyuan, drove Huang Ma away with a tractor.

Xiao Bai is an old Hui Hui, and his business is very extensive. He sells oil and rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, animal skins, wheat bran for vinegar, fruits and vegetables. In a word, he is never idle all the year round. As long as he hears the clatter of tractors in the distance, nine times out of ten he comes for nothing.

Whose broken doll in the village loves to cry and is disobedient. People often scare Xiaobai not to cry, and then shout to sell you to Xiaobai and let him go to Jingyuan. Many dolls immediately quieted down.

Xiaobai heard that my family was going to sell horses, so the tractor stopped in front of my house after sunrise that day.

After some bargaining, the price was set at 1200 yuan. Looking at a group of people pushing little Huang Ma onto the tractor, my father went back to the building alone, even ignoring the money that Xiaobai handed me.

When the tractor started, Huang Ma Jr.' s tears rolled down one by one, and he struggled and screamed in the carriage from time to time.

As luck would have it, my father was going to the township health center for a meeting that day. Fifteen miles, my father walked step by step every time, and then walked back step by step. There is a winding Panshan road on the slope of Malugou, which is dedicated to cars. There is also a path from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the mountain, which is for the use of mountain people.

Every time a tractor carrying Huang Ma Jr. passes the corner of Panshan Highway, he will meet his father walking on the path. Every time we meet, Huang Ma Jr. screams and tears at his father once, which makes him deeply concerned and unhappy. Xiao Bai motioned his father to take his tractor and give him a lift, but his father scolded him. The monk was puzzled and took you away. I don't like riding in your stupid tractor!

My father seldom drinks, and he came back drunk that day. Come back and climb on the kang and cry. Just a horse. Why sell it? Why sell it? ...

Until he moved to Hongsibao, before his father died, he was still infatuated with little Huang Ma. Army, dog (my pet name), take me back to Tai Su. Little Huang Ma barked in the stable. I'm going to let my horse go ...

My father in a coma mentioned little Huang Ma more than once, which made my mother and I shed sad tears every time.