——Looking back at the countryside is like returning to a dreamland.

1

On this cold winter afternoon, the snowflakes flying outside are like white petals, chasing and playing, flying like poetry. Sitting in front of the window and closing my eyes, I seemed to see the clear water of melted snow flowing from the depths of my memory through the clean and crystal clear snowy fields, gurgling slowly into my heart. It was a pond in my hometown, crisscrossed with algae and floating fish, and a clear pond hidden under green trees and reed leaves.

If there is no water, the small village will lose its spirituality; if there is only one draft well, the water is too narrow; if there are only narrow ditches and ponds surrounded on three sides, the water will also lack content; therefore, our ancestors We dug a large and quiet pond in the south of the village vegetable garden, connecting the ditches and ponds on three sides, and extending eastward to the ditch beside the field, and then to the river in the distance. In this way, the water has a rich and vivid spirituality.

The pond is as long as the village, and its history is longer than my memory. My mother said that the pond was there when she was a child. The pond is very large, three times as wide as the pond in the neighboring village; the pond is so deep that a 1.8-meter-tall person cannot reach the bottom with his feet standing in it; the pond is very clear, standing on the shore, with algae and fish swimming in it. It is clearly distinguishable; both sides of the pond are very beautiful, with reeds and shrubs scattered and lush. Every summer and autumn, wandering in the green shade of the trees on the shore, looking at the turquoise water, breathing the fresh air, listening to the cicadas chirping, frog drums, and fish and shrimp jumping, is like walking into a dream. Taoyuan.

During my childhood when I was poor in material resources and had only been to the town as far as I could, the pond was the most beautiful scenery in my eyes.

There are three stone steps in the pond, located in the east, west and middle. The middle one is directly south of the production team leader’s house. It is the largest and smoothest one, and it is also the most popular for adults and children. Like places to go. There, you can often hear the sound of women in the village pounding clothes, their chatting while washing vegetables, the laughter of men coming back from work to bathe in the pond, and the laughter of boys jumping into the water. . There, I was left with a long and envious look.

2

Mother would take the clothes washed with soap to the pond to wash, put the clothes on the stone steps, give them a few hits with a mallet, rub them, and put them on the Rinse clean in the pond. What I like most is the sound of my mother beating clothes with a mallet. Bang bang bang, one after another, high-pitched and rhythmic, solid and hollow. The sound seems not to come from the rocks, but from the bottom of the water. When the mother hammered the clothes, the splashing water fell into the pond, forming circles of tiny ripples, staggering and spreading, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Women will also wash vegetables and collect food in the pond. The vegetable gardens of each household are just a few meters away to the north of the pond. When I plucked a few green onions, the roots were muddy, the carrots were stained with mud, and the green vegetables were covered with insect excrement. All pure natural vegetables, no pesticides or additives. Take it to the pond, rinse it, and wash it. The onions and radishes will immediately turn white and red. Put them in your mouth and chew them for a few times, and they will become crispy. The aunts and ladies would also carry bamboo baskets to dig out corn, soybeans, and wheat in the pond, wash away the dust in the grain, and float away the shriveled corn and floating wheat, attracting waves of fish. They swam around at the water's edge under the stone steps, swaying their heads and tails, grabbing the floating wheat and corn husks floating out of the bamboo baskets.

The pond is the real territory of the fish. People only borrow the pond for use, but they provide the fish with the shriveled and discarded food. I don’t know whether the fish should thank people or the people should thank the fish. No, the most accurate answer is that people should be grateful to a pond.

In the small village at that time, people’s hearts were pure. People helped each other and never said thank you. Send a bowl of dumplings and two handfuls of peanuts to the neighbor without saying thank you; parents go to work in the fields and leave their children to the grandmother next door without saying thank you; if someone is sick, the villagers will spontaneously pull a cart to deliver it When you go to the hospital, you don’t want to thank others; similarly, when you consciously eliminate pollution and protect reservoirs, you don’t want others to say thank you.

In those poor years, water was the life of a village. In addition to protecting the well in the village, people also took care of the pond. The pond is the common property of the entire village and belongs to everyone, but people cherish it as their own. Most of the people in the village are illiterate. People do not understand the principle that "lucid waters and lush mountains are valuable assets." They just protect a clear pond naturally and from the bottom of their hearts. The overgrown weeds affected the water quality, so the villagers consciously cut some of them out; the reeds were crowded and rotten in the water, and the father consciously fished them out with a knife; even the leaves that fell in the pond, people tried their best to pick them up. Come up. The silt in the pond was too deep, so the villagers borrowed a pump to drain the water. The entire village worked together, shoulder to shoulder and carrying their hands, to turn the pond upside down. This not only removed gravel, sediment and other debris from the bottom of the water, but also provided water. The pond adds fresh spring water

If people have feelings, the water will have meaning. People take good care of their ponds, and the rewards they give people are clear water all year round, abundant water plants, and fish and shrimp swimming leisurely.

3

The spring pond is as clear as a virgin's eyes. It is so clean, as clean as virgin smooth skin, soft, smooth, cool, like silk. In the morning when the mist is drifting, a layer of milky white mist floats on the pond, like a dream wrapped in a gauze.

In the orange-red sunset shadow, the warm wind awakens the goose-yellow green on both sides of the bank; cuckoos stand on the new branches on the bank, calling for spring; swallows are not to be outdone, dancing on the water, and teasing the water like dragonflies. Then it flew away like an arrow. The long-branched weeping willows cast their shadows in the water, telling the pool the joy of their delicate eyes and cheeks; the hibernating fish also began to jump out of the water, bask in the sun, and go for a spin.

Summer ponds are the most beautiful and lively time of the year. There are patches of aquatic plants, which are faintly green, like dense forests under the water, with occasional green water chestnuts dotted among them. The reeds crowded beside the pond are green and lush, and some of them extend their broad green leaves into the water at an angle, attracting swimming fish to jump and eat as food. There are green elms on the shore, low-hanging mulberry branches, and willows. Trees of various sizes are scattered high and low, with overlapping branches and leaves, forming a natural pergola from east to west. Every hot afternoon, the cicadas are chirping, and the ground seems to be on fire. Sitting in the house is like being in a smoldering stove. At this time, walking on the shore or sitting by the stone steps is like entering a natural ecological forest area. , leaving you with a refreshing and comfortable feeling from head to toe.

The pond not only has beautiful scenery and is the best place to enjoy the shade, it is also a large natural bathing place where boys swim and play every day. In the vast land of the countryside, a pond or a river is a natural bathing center for children. It is much larger and more comfortable than the narrow bathhouses in the city.

I envy boys the most. Wearing shorts and shirtless, he jumped from the shore with a splash and disappeared in the blink of an eye. A carp stood up and reappeared in the distance. Xiao Mo, a naughty ghost who was a generation after me, climbed up to a mulberry tree on the shore, grabbed the branches with his hands, shook the mulberry tree vigorously, and said with a playful smile: "I'm going to jump down! I'm going to jump down! I'll be gone in a moment." "I screamed in fear on the shore: "Don't jump! Don't jump! You will drown." With a splash, his voice was drowned by the splash of water. While I was searching intently and worried about his safety, he appeared near the south bank with his upper body naked like a loach. Then he turned his back to the sky, kicked his hands and feet, and swam eastward like a light carp.

Watching them swimming freely in the pond, I really wish I could become a boy, bravely jump into the water, poke men, have water fights, and enjoy the lightness and freedom in the water. . During the day, we girls can only sit on the stone steps, wash our feet and take a shower. Therefore, I could only go to the stone steps of the pond to enjoy the "swimming" experience when the crowd was quiet at night.

The pond at night is deep and dark, with high and low reeds and trees that are dark and terrifying. Frogs jump into the water from the shore with a "pop" sound, and the fish playing in the water jump high. Jumping to eat the reed leaves on the water, fireflies flying around in twos and threes, the dark and quiet pond is not peaceful. I would not dare to go alone at such a night, so my second sister, I, my sister-in-law from the west, and sister Xiaofu from my east neighbor colluded and quietly came to the pond with flashlights. We lay on the stone steps, bathed in water, soaked from head to toe.

I learned how to act like a boy, kicking my feet, splashing in the water, and laughing. The timid little sister Xiaofu whispered: "Sister, please lower your voice so that others can hear it. How bad it is!" "What did you hear? Only boys are allowed to play, but us girls are not allowed to play? I want to Swim enough!" I still splashed in the water, laughing softly, and accidentally fell into the mud under the stone steps, waist deep. The sister-in-law turned on the flashlight, and the second sister quickly stretched out her hand and said softly: "Hold on! I'll pull you." The sister-in-law also stretched out a hand. I was pulled up like a man out of mud. My heart was pounding with fear. I thought I was going to slide into deep water to feed the fish.

In the starry light and shadow, the four crazy girls laughed in a low voice, "gurgle, gurgle, gurgle". Their laughter alarmed the fish and frogs in the water, and they also jumped happily.

On a summer night, in a small section of the pond that turns north at the westernmost end, the reeds are as green as clouds. There, like lamps, they flickered on and off, and there were many fireflies gathered there. I took the ink bottle I cleaned during the day and went there to catch fireflies with my friends in the village. Use a fan to beat him, beat him with a towel, and cover him with clothes. Caught it, put it in an ink bottle, capped it, and took it home. Holding the bottle and watching the fireflies flicker on and off, it feels like holding twinkling stars in the palm of your hand, giving rise to a lot of imagination and magical feelings.

4

In the imagination of fireflies, summer is bid farewell and autumn comes one after another. The pond is quiet in autumn. The children have gone to school and the adults are busy harvesting and planting. Except for the women who often go to the pond to search for food, wash vegetables and rinse clothes, the pond is mostly calm. The pond, which had been bustling all summer, rested quietly among the white reeds on both sides.

The ponds in winter are quieter than in autumn. The fish sank to the bottom of the water, the dead grass in the pond was fished out, only the stubble of the reeds on the shore was left, and the trees were stripped of their dead leaves. At this time, what I look forward to most is two heavy snowfalls and a few cold snaps, so that I can not only build snowmen and have snowball fights, but also stand on the ice of the pond and skate. The snow at that time was heavier than now, and the ice at that time was thicker than now, enough to satisfy the desire of a village of children to play ice skating.

After one cold spell after another, the ice in the pond was frozen layer by layer, and it was finally time to go skating.

At this time, all the children in the village gathered at the west end of the pond, because the water there was wide and shallow. Even if the ice broke and fell into the water, they would not slip into the ice hole and drown. The water in the middle and east end of the pond is relatively deep, and we would never dare to take risks there.

At this time, the west end of the pond became a natural skating rink, and the laughter broke the cold winter. The naughty Gui Maodan ran a few steps, spread his legs, stood up straight, and slipped forward. Then, Little Girl, Little Touch, Fengsheng... slipped out one after another. There were two people holding hands and sliding forward together; there were also several people who were sliding forward side by side, fell down, got up, and continued sliding. My second sister and I took the wooden lift. One of us squatted on the female lift, holding the handle with both hands, and the other pulled the other end of the wooden lift on the ice. The second sister pushed hard, and I fell off the wooden lift and fell on the ice. I squatted up again and let the second sister pull me up.

Of course, ice skating can also be risky. Sometimes there are too many people, and the ice gives a warning with a click, and with a "coax", the children are so frightened that they run to the shore.

5

As winter passes and spring comes, the four seasons change. The pond is like an ever-changing painting, but its background has always been clear and clean. After graduating from high school, I went to school in the provincial capital, and gradually became alienated from Shuitang. Now 30 years have passed, but the rippling clear waves of the pond, countless swimming fish, intertwined aquatic plants with algae, and the shady woods on the shore still appear in my dreams. In today's era, people are blindly pursuing material money. Where can I find the pond in my dream?

Every time I go back to my hometown, I walk through the ditch and pond in the west of the village filled with straw, and walk on the flat cement road at the entrance of the village, I feel an inexplicable sense of loss and sadness in my heart. I have never seen the large pond in front of me. Is it as clear as yesterday? Are the fireflies still twinkling like stars on summer nights there? How long have we not seen the girl next door, Xiaofu, who I went to take a bath with at the pond that night?

At that time, my eyes were like stars and my heart was like water, but now I am middle-aged and have gray hair. The changes of life are the same as the changes of ponds, always from youth and purity to old age and death, but as long as it is rich and vivid, leaving behind memories as pure as spring water, it will be full of meaning without regrets.

2018.1.28