In the green basin, with the handle of his blue cloth duster, he knocked hard on the big green basin on both sides and said:

"Listen! Listen to this! What is that noise! Where can I find this green basin? Sai Jiangxi porcelain! Please add it again! "

Mother traded a pile of newspapers, three old leather shoes and two broken iron pots for his four small benches and a washboard; Song Ma will spare a small green pot for mixing cucumbers.

As for me, I am holding a small bench and won't let go. The person who changed the green basin shouted for her mother to add more things. An old cotton-padded jacket, two stacks of broken books were added, and he also said:

"Add it, you."

Mom said, "Don't change it!" Tell Song Ma to move things in. I'm in a hurry to buy and sell, so I can't close the deal. I want to return the stool to him, but the one who changed the green basin shouted loudly:

"Take it! Change it! " He waved his hand and said dejectedly, "Alas! Who let it not open today! "

Four small benches were placed under the big shade across the hall. Song Ma took the four of us, Zhu Zhu, my brother and Yan Yan, to sit on the new bench and tell stories. Yan Yan is small, crowded beside Song Ma, sitting and leaning, eating her fingers to play.

"How old is your little embolus?" I asked.

"About your age, nine years old!"

Xiao Shuan is Song Ma's son. These two days, she is telling us the story of her hometown: the ears of wheat in the field are long, the grass on the hillside is high, and the little embolus picks the dog's tail flowers and sticks them in the horns of cattle. She still holds a thick sole in her hand, which is tightly packed with thick hemp rope. It is made for small embolus.

"So he is in the third grade, too?" I asked.

"Country people have you this good life? He's showing people the cow at an adult price! " She stopped her work, raised her awl and scratched it in her hair a few times. She said to herself, "I have to go home this year, and my heart is always out of order." She said wait for a while, I don't know what's going on.

"Then what about your girl?"

In fact, I already know the story of the girl, and Song Ma told it several times. Song Ma's girl, like her brother, is four years old this year. She gave birth to a girl before she came to the city to be a wet nurse, and soon she came to our house and became a wet nurse for her brother. Her milk is good, and her brother eats white and fat. As for her maid, just after she came to my house to try out her job, she was taken back by her husband to give her milk. I ask once and she tells me once, but I'm not tired of it.

"Girl, she spent money to milk others!" Song Ma said.

"Will it be yours in the future?"

"My girl doesn't belong to me? Do you belong to your mother? " She asked me.

"Then why don't you give milk yourself? Why did you come to my house as a wet nurse? Why do you give the money you earned to others? "

"Why? In order to say that you don't understand, our country people are miserable! Xiao Shuan's father is worthless, and he always beats me. When I am cruel, I will come out as a wet nurse to earn money myself! "

I still remember the day when she first came. It was a winter. She was wearing a red cotton-padded jacket with a white lining and shiny oil. She stuffed her nipple into her brother's mouth, and he sucked and sucked, ate a big meal of milk, fell asleep at once, and woke up after a long time without crying. Just leave her as a wet nurse.

Three days later, her husband came, pulling a donkey and tying it to the trunk in front of the door. He has a long face and yellow teeth. How ugly! Mom got paid, and the passbook said: four yuan a month, two silver jewelry, clothes for the four seasons, and a new bed. It took a year and four months to go home.

Song Ma, wearing a red cotton-padded jacket, wrapped her child in an old flower quilt and gave it to her husband. When she saw her husband and children out, she cried, turned her back and lifted her skirt to wipe her tears, and looked up for a long time. Lao Zhang of the matchmaker's shop advised Song Ma to say:

"Don't cry, be careful to put the milk back."

Song Ma stopped crying. She gave the money to Lao Zhang and the rest to her husband. She charged her husband many words, and her husband said:

"Don't worry."

He took the donkey with the child in his arms and walked away.

In four months of the year, Huang Banerya came again, and he wanted to take Song Ma back, but Song Ma couldn't bear to part with her younger brother, and her mother was going to have a baby, so she left her again. Song Ma counted a large pile of ocean money and gave it to her husband. He put the money in a blue cloth bag and tinkled it, leading the donkey away again.

After that, he will come twice a year, and the little donkey will be tied to the corner of the wall in the yard, which will make donkey dung balls all over the ground. Fortunately, for one day, he will be allowed to leave. As the donkey rolled down, it was a big sack, which contained either big peanuts or big dates, which he gave to his master and wife, my father and mother. There are plenty in the countryside.

I just can't imagine what our family would be like if Song Ma really went back to her hometown. Get up early. Who will braid my hair and go to school? Who feeds Yan Yan for dinner? Who will protect my brother when his father hits him? Who will wipe Zhu Zhu's shit? We can't live without her!

However, if she often wants to go home, she has asked us several times recently: "Shall I go back to our hometown?"

"Don't!" Except for Yan Yan, who can't talk, we all oppose it in unison. In the spring, my brother had a terrible measles. He refused to drink the reed root soup with his mouth closed. We watched around my brother whose nose and eyes were covered with rashes. Mom said:

"Well, don't take medicine, just call your wet nurse back! Go home! Song Ma! Give your clothes and toys to your little embolus and little girl! "

Song Ma pretend to go toward outside walk while said:

"Let's go! Go home! Go home and find our little embolus and our little girl! "

"I drink! I drink! Don't go! " My brother opened his hand pitifully to reach the bowl of reed root soup in his mother's hand and drank half of it at one breath. Song Ma love something, immediately cuddle up younger brother, his head against his brother's hot rotten face said:

"Don't go! I'm not leaving! I still want our brother, not a little embolus, not a little girl! " Then, her eyes were red, and her brother gradually fell asleep in her coaxing.

A few days ago, a young man who called Song Ma Aunt came. He came to stay for two days and wanted to find a job. He will braid the lampshade of the electric light at the gate with wire to prevent the light bulb from being stolen by thieves. Song Ma asked him:

"When you came to Beijing, you saw our little embolus, okay?"

"Huh?" He seemed startled and stared at his eyes. "I didn't see it. I came from my uncle in Liucun!" "

"Oh," Song Ma paused thoughtfully for a moment, and then asked, "You came from your uncle's place. Well, our girl gave Liu Cun gold to his mother. Did you hear that the child is strong?"

"Oh?" He is a surprised, "no, I haven't heard. That's right, don't worry! "

Paused, but he said again:

"Aunt, if you can go home and have a look, you haven't been back for three or four years!"

When the young man left, Song Ma told her mother that she was hesitant and uneasy after listening to her nephew's words.

Mother comforted her and said:

"I think your nephew is not serious. Listen, he will call your house for a while and his uncle's house for a while. If his own words are not right, how can he know about your children! "

Song Ma still not trust, she said:

"I have been out of order since the beginning of this year, and I have had several dreams!"

She called a fortune teller to interpret her dreams. She asked me to write for her again on the day of worship. I have memorized the place name of her hometown: fengcun, Niulanshan, Shunyi County, delivered a letter from Feng Daming to my husband.

"How good it is to study! You can write letters when you are nine years old, and you can't lose them when you go out!"

"What does the letter say?" I took a pen, spread a piece of writing paper, and tried to be brave.

"You can write ah, home size can be safe? Small embolus should be careful when grazing cattle in the wild, and don't try to play in the water. I made two pairs of shoes and a pair of trousers for you. Don't forget to send money when the time comes! Give people too much and too little. The money I got back is almost 200 yuan, and the second part of the back slope should be redeemed to save the land of the old people. Besides, I'm safe here, just thinking about my children, and I'm relieved to bring the embolus to me when I come next month. And ... "

"This letter is too long!" I stopped her endless words, "Let dad write!"

The letter written by her father has been sent out, and Song Ma is very happy these days. Now, she asked her brother,

"If Xiao Shuan comes, will your new bench be given to him?"

"Here!" The younger brother stood up at once.

"I'll give it, too." Zhuzhu said.

"Why don't you go to the attached primary school with me when Xiao Shuan comes?" I said.

"That's great, as long as your mother promises to let him live here."

"I'll say it! My mother listens to me very much. "

"Small embolus is coming, you don't laugh at him, eiko, but you can laugh at people! He is a countryman, but he is indigenous! " Song Ma said it as if the little embolus would arrive later. She looked at me again and said:

"Eiko, he must be taller than you. It's been four years, but how tall he has grown!"

Song Ma happily picked up Yanyan and put it on her knee. With her knees jerking, she sang her song:

"Eggs are eggshells, and there is a brother sitting inside. My brother comes out to sell vegetables, and there is an aunt's milk. Grandma comes out to burn incense, and there is a girl sitting inside. The girl comes out to light a lamp and burns her nose and eyes!"

She sang, held Yan Yan's little finger with her hand, pointed to her nose and eyes, and Yan Yan giggled.

Song Ma sang Allegro again:

"Sophora japonica, Sophora japonica, take a stage under the Sophora japonica, and all the girls have come, but my girl hasn't come yet; At some point, I came, riding a donkey, holding an umbrella, naked and holding a bun ... "

The sun tilted, and the golden light came through the cracks in the leaves, which was shining in my eyes. With Song Ma's singing, I tilted my head to avoid the dazzling sun, and suddenly I saw a mass of black moving outside the alley mouth. I raised my hand to cover the sun and looked carefully. It was really a Xiao Lv, and it came slowly. The donkey driver's half coat of blue cloth was covered with loess. Yo! Isn't that a yellow tooth? I called Song Ma:

"Look, someone is riding a donkey!"

Song Ma stopped singing and turned her head to stare blankly.

Huang Baner's teeth snapped: "Oh!" Xiao Lv stopped in front of us.

Song Ma didn't speak or stand up. Her smile just now was gone. She looked at her husband with a sullen face, as if waiting for something.

Huang Baner's teeth didn't speak, so he dusted his clothes and the loess flew. I despise him! Cover your nose with your hand. He took off his straw hat and fanned it. I don't know who to say, "It's so hot!" "

Song Ma this just seems to be unbearable, ask:

"Where are the children?"

"I went to his aunt's house." He raised his foot to brush his shoes again, without looking at Song Ma. His white socks turned yellow, which was also made by Song Ma. His socks, like shoes, have several layers of foundation and are received with fine needles and dense threads.

I looked at the big sack on the donkey's back and wondered what was in it this time. Huang Banerya took down the pocket and untied it. From it, she took out a large handful of dried dates and gave them to me. They were crisp to bite and spicy and fragrant.

"Eiko, you take Zhuzhu Shang Xiaohong to their house to play, hang up the dates and take some more for others to eat." Song Ma said.

I left with Zhuzhu. Looking back, Song Ma picked up four new benches in one hand, Yan Yan in the other, and her younger brother took her by the skirts. They were walking home. Huang Baner took the donkey by the hand and walked into my house. He must have to stay for another night. His donkey is rolling all over the ground, and the flowers and plants planted by his father will be ruined again.

When we came back from Xiaohong's house, it was getting dark, and we didn't eat many dates. Xiaohong put them on with a string and hung them all around my neck.

Song Ma and her husband are in the doorway when they come in. Huang Banerya sat in a daze on our new bench, and Song Ma covered her face and cried, afraid to make any noise.

Food has been set in the room. Mother is feeding Yanyan, frowning, sipping her mouth, shaking her head and sighing, which is quite wrong. "Mom," I whispered, "Song Ma is crying!"

Mother gently waved to me and forbade me to talk. What is so important?

"Song Ma's little embolus is dead," my mother said to me in a hoarse voice, and she turned to her father: "Alas!" I've been dead for a year or two, and I haven't said it until now. No wonder Song Ma is always upset these days. She must call her husband to ask. Her nephew's visit was interesting. Two things happen at the same time, what a pain! “

Dad also shook his head and sighed, and there was nothing to say.

I was sad to hear that, but I didn't know what the other thing was, and I was afraid to ask.

My mother told me to call Song Ma, and I felt it was a serious matter. When I got to the doorway, I didn't dare to shout at her as loudly as I did every time. I gently shouted, "Song Ma, Mom called you!"

Song Ma can't easily stop sobbing and come into the house. Mom said to her:

"You go home with him tomorrow, and you haven't been home for several years."

"Children are gone, I also go back to do? Don't go back, don't go back to death! " Song Ma red eyes ruthlessly say; And took the spoon from my mother's hand and fed it to Yan Yan, as if this meant that she would stay in our house.

"Who did your girl give it to? Can you get it back? "

"How cruel!" Song Ma hated to bite her teeth. "I took it back that year, and even before I left Hadmen, he gave the child to someone. He said that he didn't want people's money, so I don't believe it!"

"If you give it to someone who is famous and has a surname, there is a place to find it."

"It is said that it was given to a carriage driver. The father and mother are forty years old and have no children or women. Who knows it is true and false!" "Ask clearly and look for it."

Turned out to be such a thing, Song Ma adult chanting with us little embolus and wench, that all haveno.. Song Ma made so many clothes and shoes for them every year. Who did her husband give them to? Whose home is the little baby wrapped in an old flower quilt? I want to ask how Xiao Shuan died, but I dare not ask when I look at Song Ma's red and swollen eyes.

"I think you should go back." Mother advised her again, but Song Ma shook her head and said nothing, even though she shed tears. She fed Yan Yan spoon by spoon, and Yan Yan also ate bite by bite, but her eyes were fixed on Song Ma. Because Song Ma has never been like this.

Song Ma still drew water and bathed the four of us, and everyone threw thick prickly heat powder on his face and neck, so he put his brother and Yan Yan to bed. It's just that she didn't have the heart to sing her songs of lighting the fire chain today, just fanned them to sleep. Everything is as usual, but she didn't have dinner today and left her husband in the doorway to ignore him. As for him, he is lighting the fire with flint, and Bada is smoking a pipe. Xiao Lv was probably hungry. He was lying on the ground, and suddenly he lifted his neck and shouted loudly. How ugly! Huang Banerya opened a bag of hay in the past. When he saw the food, he rolled and stood up. His little hoof trampled down two or three Hosta flowers planted by his father at the edge of the flower pond. Donkeys eat hay, their noses twitch and their rhubarb teeth show. No wonder, who does the wet nurse's husband look like? It's him! Why did Song Ma marry Huang Banerya, you stupid donkey!

I got up the next morning and looked out of the window. The donkey was gone, leaving a pile of dung balls on the ground, and Song Ma was cleaning it. She looked up and saw me, beckoning me out.

I ran out, Song Ma said to me:

"Eiko, don't run around. Come out with me later. You can read. Help me find a place."

"Where to?" I'm surprised.

"Look around Hadmen." Then she cried again, lowered her head, put donkey dung into a dustpan, and tears fell on it. "Look for a girl."

"ok." I promised.

Song Ma and I snuck out, and my mother coaxed my brother into playing in the room. Soon after leaving the door, Song Ma regretted it:

"I should take my younger brother with me. If he can't see me back, he will cry. He has never left me for a moment!" Just for this reason, Song Ma stayed in my house year after year, so I dared to ask:

"How did the little embolus die? Song Ma. "

"Didn't I tell you that there is a river under the back slope of fengcun ..."

"Yes, you said, be careful when telling Xiao Shuan to herd cattle, and don't just play with water."

"When he fell into the water and died, he couldn't herd cattle. It turned out that it was the year when your mother gave birth to Yanyan."

"At that time, Huang Ban, well, what did your husband do?"

"He said he was going to the fields, and it would be strange if he hadn't gone to play with money in the hut on the back slope! Small embolus must have been hungry for a day to find what he wanted to eat, and he was blown out. You can't go to the river on the back slope unless you go to the straw shed. "

"Also, why did your husband give the little girl away?"

"Isn't it more reassuring to send people? Anyway, it's a girl. It's worthless. If the little embolus hadn't died, girl, I wouldn't want it. Now I can't help but get her back. I'll spend it if I want. " Song Ma said.

We pass through the Ministry of War Valley, Middle Street, Xijiaomin Lane from Woolen Hutong, and the East Jiaomin Lane is Hadmen Street. "I suddenly remembered a word on the road.

"Song Ma, don't you regret losing two children when you come to our house?"

"I regret that I should have brought our little embolus into the city and studied and read with you."

"Are you going to find a girl and go home?"

"hmm." Song Ma promised blindly, but she didn't catch what I said.

We walked to the gate of China Bank in Xi 'an Jiaotong-People Lane, and Song Ma stopped on the stone steps, and a passer-by stopped here to sell food. He set up a wooden shelf, put a square plate on it, then opened the cover and made a kind of food with yellow flour.

"Song Ma, what is he doing?"

"Ah?" Song Ma looking at brick in become speechless, she looked up and said:

"That's called snowballing usury. Steam yellow wheat, wrap it in brown sugar, and roll it in mung bean powder. It smells good. Do you want to eat it? "

The food is called "snowballing", which is very interesting. How can I not eat it? I swallowed and nodded, and Song Ma took out money to buy me two to eat. She bought a few more, carefully wrapped them in a handkerchief, and I said, "Is it for a girl?"

Out of Dongjiaomin Lane, I saw the bustling Hadmen Street, but which way to go? We stood at the gate of Tongren Hospital in America. Song Ma's back was soaked with sweat, and her shoulders shook off when she lifted the bamboo binding, looking east and west.

"Go that way", she pointed diagonally across the street, where there was a row of shops that were not buildings. After passing several houses, I saw a carriage line. It was dark inside, and someone was sitting idle at the door. Song Ma asked the man,

"I want to ask you, there is a big brother who drives a carriage, and there is a girl in front of him. Do you have it?" that

People are very strange to Song Ma and I looked up and down:

"Where are you from?"

"An old fellow asked me to give him a message."

The man pointed to the alley next to him and said, "Where is it? The one at the bottom of the alley is it."

Song Ma was very excited and thanked the man straight. Then she took my hand and walked to the alley. This is a dead end, and it is a small black door. Although the door is closed, it is opened with a push, and there are two or three children playing with dirt in the yard.

"Excuse me, find someone!" Song Ma shouted.

One of the children shouted several times toward the room:

"Grandma, someone is looking for it."

An old lady came out of the room. She was deaf and probably almost blind. She didn't see us standing at the door, and she couldn't hear the children talking. She didn't come to the door until they pointed at us. Song Ma loudly shout:

"How many families do you live in this courtyard?"

"Ah, just one." The old lady covered her ears with her hands before she heard it. "You have a girl!"

"Yes, you are looking for a mother!" She pointed to three boys.

Song Ma shook her head, knowing that something was completely wrong. Before the old lady finished, she said:

"Wrong person!"

We walked from the Hadgate to the Hadgate, and when we saw three carriage lines, we all asked people to keep shaking their heads. We had to walk back the same way. Song Ma didn't say a word on the way. It took a long time to remember something and said, "Eiko, are you tired from walking?" Shall we take a bus? "

I shook my head and looked up at Song Ma. She squeezed the meat between her eyebrows with her hands and closed her eyes. She was a little unstable and seemed to faint. She asked me again:

"Hungry?" He said, he opened the towel bag and took out a snowball that he had just bought. The mung bean powder on it had been wet-dissolved by yellow wheat. I said, "Roll on a donkey!" Take it and put it in your mouth.

I said to Song Ma:

"I know why it's called a donkey rolling. Your donkey is rolling on the ground, and there is always such a pile under its ass." I showed her one, "Is it like a donkey dung ball?"

I want to make Song Ma laugh, but she doesn't laugh, just say:

"Eat!"

Half a month later, Song Ma said that she had traveled all over the carriage line in Beijing, and there was no trace of a girl.

Under the shade, I can't hear the story of a small embolus herding cattle on the back slope of fengcun; I can't see the thick soles in Song Ma's hands; I won't ask my father to write a safe letter to me. She always turns her silver bracelet around and looks at it without saying a word.

Winter is coming again, and yellow teeth are coming again. Song Ma made him squat in the next room all day and didn't talk to him. It was a snowy night. After supper, we crowded in front of the window to look at the yard. Song Ma turned on the electric light in the yard, and the light shone on the snow, flat and bright. The sky is still falling with snow, spreading layer by layer. Song Ma fed Yan Yan to eat frozen persimmons, and I read the lesson in Chinese called Snow:

One piece after another,

Two, three, four or five,

Six tablets, seven tablets, 89 tablets,

Flying into the reed flowers is not seen.

The teacher said that this is a poem written by an emperor who can't write poetry, and the last sentence was connected by his courtiers. But it reads smoothly and sounds good.

Mother made Yan Yan's red satin cotton-padded jacket under the lamp, and the cotton was torn small and thin, and spread layer by layer. Mother said, "Call your master. I told him to write the letter secretly. Go back with him and come back here next year after giving birth to a son. It's immortality, it's wealth, little embolus and wench, what a way! You can't stop having children from here! "

Song Ma without words, mother said again:

"What do you think?"

Song Ma this just say:

"All right, I'll go home and get even with him!"

Both father and mother laughed.

"What about these children?" Song Ma said.

"Are you still afraid that I have wronged them?" Mom said with a smile.

Song Ma looked at me and said:

"You study big, don't bully brother! Don't tell your father about him, he is young. "

My brother has fallen asleep in the chair. He is very naughty now. He often climbs to the table and rummages through my schoolbag.

Song Ma carried her brother to bed. She gently took off her shoes for fear of waking him up. She sighed and said, "If you can't see me tomorrow morning, you may make trouble." She said to her mother, "The child has a strong temper, so tell the master not to hit him easily;" Yan Yan has a little cough these two days, so you'd better give her pear stewed with rock sugar. I brought Eiko's hair nest back to do it, and someone brought it to Beijing; Zhuzhu's socks need mending. Also, ... I think I still ... Alas! " Song Ma's words are not finished, so don't say it.

Mom took out the passbook, told dad to read it, and calculated a lot of money and gave it to her; She took the money without care, and she didn't count it. She smiled miserably: "Just leave!" "

"Go to bed early, you have to get up early tomorrow." Mom said.

Song Ma opened the door and looked at the sky and said:

"That year, it was snowing heavily on the day I came to Beijing. It's been four years!"

Her red cotton-padded jacket has long been removed; The old cotton was changed into a hairpin and soaked for combing hair; Face and lining, give the small embolus a sole.

"Mom, will Song Ma come back?" I lay in bed and asked my mother.

Mother waved me down, for fear that I would wake my brother, she said softly to me:

"Eiko, she's going back now. Maybe it will come again in the snowy day next year, holding a new doll."

"At that time, she will give us a nanny? Then you will also have a little sister. "

"Children talk nonsense!" Mother scolded me with a serious face.

"Who will braid my hair tomorrow morning?" My hair is yellow and short, and it's hard to comb it. Every morning, I always jump to urge Song Ma, and she will scold me: "I'm used to it. It's so urgent to get on the sedan chair tomorrow. How shabby!"

"Get up early tomorrow, and you can hurry to let Song Ma braid your hair before you go." Mom said.

I woke up at dawn and heard a rustling sound outside the window. I suddenly remembered something. I quickly got up and ran to the window to look out. The snow stopped, and there was snow hanging on the dry branches. Xiao Lv was tied to the trunk. As soon as it moved, the snow on the branches was shaken off and fell on the donkey's back.

I gently put on my clothes and went out to find Song Ma in the next room. She was startled to see me get up so early. I said, "Song Ma, braid my hair."

She is very kind today, so don't nag me.

Xiao Lv had a good breakfast. Huang Baner's teeth led him to the gate, and the bedding was draped on the donkey's back, as thick as a sofa chair. It must be very comfortable to ride.

Song Ma is done. She wraps her head in a big wool scarf and wraps it around her neck twice. She said to me:

"I don't call your mother, porridge stew on the fire! Eiko, study hard. You are the elder sister. Be a good person. " After that, she sat cross-legged on the donkey's back, which was amazing!

Huang Baner slapped the donkey's ass, and Xiao Lv walked forward, leaving clear hoof prints on the thick snow. Huang Baner's teeth ran after the donkey and shouted, "Go, go, go, go."

The donkey has a string of small bells around its neck, which rings beautifully in the fresh air after the snow.