My hometown is a small fishing village in the west of Guangdong province. There are orchards on the mountain, farmland under the mountain, fish and shrimp in the sea, is rich. Even so, in my childhood, the village was plagued by unhealthy folk customs and gambling habits for many years. It was not until later that the village committee vigorously developed sea resources and encouraged villagers to contract fish ponds and shrimp ponds that the village got rid of poverty. At that time, the village people always love chanting: by the sea hungry is not bad.
This mountain refers to the Daguang Ridge.
For so many years, Mei Jie lived alone on Daguang Ling. Most of the villagers’ fields were deserted, and occasionally the woman who planted some small vegetables under the mountain said in small talk: “You know what? Ah Mui’s dishes in Daguang Ling are growing very well.”
I have heard so many words that the village women bullied Mei Jie because of their resentment since childhood. I have seen mei Jie, who was almost killed by the village people, grow old. Then I finally saw that the resentment of all the people has been gradually calmed down with the passage of time. Nowadays, the village women speak of Mei Jie, not as malicious curses. “Ah Mui is just as old as we are, and just as ugly as we are, but the vegetables are so good.”
Once the young villagers were white-haired and led a life of revelry and sun making fun of each other. The details of the past 20 years surrounding Mei Jie seem to have gone away for a century.
1
When I was seven, I was in the first grade. One day between classes, suddenly heard a noise outside the campus, a long, dressed in red villagers are slowly walking in the village road, while beating drums and gongs, sometimes the sound of gunfire rang out. At the head of the line was a small black car moving slowly forward. As soon as the car reached the entrance, the villagers who had gathered there cheered together.
A group of our children rushed past and made our way into the front of the crowd. The Big Boss emerged from the car in his early 30s, looking much younger than my dad. His skin was very red, his shoes were polished, he spoke slowly and with the appearance of a rich man.
The big boss waved to the villagers and then said, “Thank you, fellow villagers. It’s really a great honor for me. If you have time, please come with me to the village restaurant for dinner.” All the villagers smiled like a flower, and the village secretary said quickly, “Boss Yan, you are very polite. You donate money to the village every year, which is what we should do.
Just as we were talking and laughing, a ragged woman burst in and rushed all the way to the front of the boss, speaking to him in a torrent of words that others could not understand, and gesking with her hands and feet, her face full of excitement. Some villagers shouted: “Isn’t this crazy Mei Jie? Why did she suddenly come out?”
The atmosphere of the scene was cold. The boss’s cheerful face suddenly changed color. He forced out a smile and said stiffly to her, “Ah Mui, how are you doing recently?”
Is this the crazy Mei elder sister who lives alone in the bamboo forest small firewood room in front of sibo? I have often heard of her, but I have never seen her. The villagers said mei Jie was a mentally disturbed unmarried woman, the orphan daughter of Teacher Xie. Mr. Xie was an old teacher in the village school. He had taught my father, but he died many years ago.
In those years, Mei Jie was seldom seen in the village, and no one thought that she would come out without warning. I looked at Mei Jie carefully. She was about the same age as the boss. Her face was dirty and her hair smelled bad. But in spite of its earthy hue, it was a face of great beauty: big eyes and a pointed chin, a tall nose and a small mouth, with dimples when speaking. Even if through a bit of turgidity and silly gas, but in the face of the boss, his eyes are still soft as water, not like the adults said that “terrible”.
In the crowd, many women looked disgusted. Finally, the village secretary gave a look and asked some strong men to take Mei Jie away. When they were taken away, Mei Jie still tried hard to look back at the boss and called him “Brother Yan” one after another, and then a series of words that others could not understand.
But the boss never looked at Mei Jie again, looking as if nothing had happened. After Mei Jie finally walked away with a sad cry, the village secretary apologized bitterly to the boss, saying, “Boss, just now you were frightened by the crazy woman. I’m really sorry for that.”
The boss did not reply, but the face obviously did not have the interest just now, just ask everyone to go to have a meal with him.
Listen to parents say, the boss came back, the first time did not donate money to the village. The villagers all thought that it was Mei Jie who frightened the boss and made him in a bad mood. They all pointed the finger at Mei Jie for a while. Soon, someone took the lead and said that this time the road from the bamboo forest would really be blocked. “Don’t let crazy Mei Jie appear in the village again!”
“Get that crazy woman out of the way, and maybe the boss will cool it and give us money.”
Someone actually brought shovels, cement, bricks, sand and stones from home and began to plan to seal off the road leading to the village from Mei Jie’s house. Hearing the news, many villagers and I rushed over to watch. After mixing the cement, the three men began to build bricks. They had built houses for the villagers, and they were so skillful that the wall was half a meter high in less than two hours.
Just as the crowd gathered in front of her house, Mei Jie carefully poked her head out of her woodshed. Perhaps she had never seen so many people come with smiles on their faces. But as the wall rose higher and higher, Mei seemed to suddenly wake up and realize that it was a wall that had trapped her to death inside. Then she clumsily climbed up to the wall and shook her hand at the villagers who were doing the work.
The big man who was working ignored Mei Jie, so she wanted to grab the cement and bricks. Another big man who was working grabbed the materials and slapped her. Then came mei Jie’s hoarse cry, as she kowered to the three. None of the onlookers came forward, some also laughed, seems to be intoxicated in the joy of watching the play.
More and more people gathered around her. Mei jie’s head was bleeding as the workers continued to build the wall. Finally, a villager who had just arrived at the scene and looked about the same age as Mei Jie said an imploring word: “Come on, you really want to kill people, just vent your anger.”
At the sound of someone talking, Mei Jie looked up at the villager and, as if she had found a life-saving straw, crawled over and took hold of his clothes, looked straight at him, muttered, pointed at the group of men, and began to knock her head again and again.
The crowd grew more lively. Some objected and some were silent. The villager picked up Mei Jie and said, “Life is of great importance…” Then he pointed to the direction of the crowd for a circle, angrily said: “You people’s relatives, how much is the teacher xie taught out? What did the teacher do to you? What’s the difference between what you’re doing and what you’re doing?”
The three men stopped their hands and looked at each other. At last, another villager made amends and said, “Come on, don’t torture this silly mei elder sister any more.”
They finally pushed the wall down. As we walked back, Mei jie was kowtowing to the back of the crowd.
2
My family kept me away from the bamboo forest for fear that I should meet Mei Jie. Every time the elders in the village say something about Mei Jie, my ears stick high. After seeing Mei Jie in person, I never stopped asking my parents to tell me more about her.
In the 1960s, the whole village was struggling to feed and clothe. Only Sister Mei’s family was prosperous. Mei’s grandfather was a landowner before liberation and fled to Taiwan, leaving behind a rich family fortune. His father was a veritable son of a rich family, and his boss’s mother was xie’s cook.
People in the village were jealous of the rich life of Mei Jie’s family. Since the Cultural Revolution, they would take Mei Jie’s father to the streets every day, throwing vegetable leaves and beating bricks. Finally, one day, her father hung in front of their house. The body is not cold, outside the village hooligans will take advantage of her home only widows and orphans, into stealing and looting.
Mei Jie was only two years old that year.
When the villagers looked at the scene, they did not bother them any more. Later, some villagers felt regretful, so they recommended mei’s mother who had read books to become a primary school teacher in the village. Although the family is so poor, Mr. Xie has never hated anyone, but to every student with all his heart and soul. Mei Jie, the only daughter who has lived in the mansion since childhood, is also attractive and cute.
In those absurd and difficult years, the boss’s family and Sister Mei’s family have been supporting each other. The father of the boss died of disease in his early years, leaving the boss’s mother alone with four hungry children. Yan boss and mei jie grow up together from a child, also set a baby close.
After graduating from high school, Yan boss was admitted to a key university, but the two families pooled their money together and failed to raise enough money for the trip. Mei jie went up the hill with the village women to chop wood for the master to read. Before leaving, the boss swore in front of a crowd of villagers that he would marry Mei Jie after graduation.
However, after four years of waiting, Boss Yan returned to the village with a city girl. Mei elder sister which suffer this to blow, scold again to the boss of the speech coax again beg, the boss of the speech refuses to turn head from beginning to end however, be determined to break up.
At that time, even yan boss’s mother also advised him, can’t do this kind of unkind thing. However, for the “future” of the desire has completely changed the character of the boss. The older generation in the village said, “How could Ah Yan, who went to a big city to study at university, still be worthy of Ah Mei, who was chopping wood in the village? Since the day he flew to the branches to become a phoenix, we have already belonged to different worlds.”
On the day that the boss took the girl away from the city, Mei Jie had been standing under the banyan tree at the entrance of the village, gazing longingly at the coach they were taking, which had been standing from noon until dark, and the passers-by had all been crying.
Mei jie did not cut wood any more. The village officials sympathized with her and assigned her a good job, keeping accounts at the grain station. On weekdays, she refused to stay at home, but went to the tree at the entrance of the village every day, just waiting and hoping. At first everyone also advised her “don’t humiliate yourself again”, she also wouldn’t listen, Teacher Xie called someone to tie her back, not for a while, she slipped out again under the banyan tree.
After waiting at the entrance to the village for eight months, Xie found liver cancer. Fearing that the news of her illness would aggravate her daughter’s grief, she never spoke to Mei jie. However, Mei jie only went to the village every day, with a look of indifference. She didn’t care about her mother’s serious illness.
On the day of Teacher Xie’s death, mei Jie returned home from the village as if it were an omen. She did not know where she had brought back a chicken leg. When Mei Jie entered the house, Teacher Xie’s consciousness was already blurred, but he still tried his best to look at Mei Jie all the time and saw that all the neighbors were crying into tears. Instead of crying or making a noise, Mei jie only used her teeth to bite the chicken leg into many small pieces. She knelt down and fed Three or two pieces to Xie, saying something that others could not understand.
After Teacher Xie closed her eyes, Mei jie, like a dummy without any emotion, changed the shrill clothes prepared earlier for her mother alone. She insisted that no neighbor should help her and no one should be invited to handle the funeral. The neighbors, seeing mei jie half awake and half crazy, dared not stimulate her any more. They could only follow her wishes and then went home later.
No one expected that at 9 o ‘clock that night, Mei Jie went to daguang Ling by the village alone, carrying Teacher Xie on her back and carrying a shovel. At that time, there was no street lamp on the road in the village, so that people walking on the road could not be seen clearly. By chance, some children in the village passed by and saw Mei Jie carrying a man in black. With a flashlight, there was no color in Mei Jie’s face. Teacher Xie was on her back, eyes closed, hands and feet all drooping.
Emboldened, the child asked, “Sister Mei, where is She going so late with Teacher Xie on her back? Is she sick?”
Sister Mei did not answer, but gave the child a little smile and said, “Go to a very interesting place. Would you like to go with me?” The child felt baffling, plus fear, rushed home, returned home to hear that Teacher Xie had died, scared hair several nights nightmare.
This child is my youngest uncle. Over the years, whenever I think of the situation that night, Uncle Yao is still cold. From that day on, everyone said mei Jie was completely mad. She always said under the tree what “Ah Yan you quickly come back, mother not line”, sometimes tears and sometimes laughter. Whenever someone drove up, she would run to the front of the car and say to the man inside, “Yan, you are back. Go and see mom. She wants to see us get married.” She scared the people in the car so much that others hurried to pull her away.
Then sister Mei suddenly disappeared. For a long time, her house was deserted, her house deserted, her neighbors occasionally wanted to visit, but the front door was always locked.
“Poor little sister, she has gone mad and is going out to be bullied.” When Mei Jie first disappeared, the neighbors thought of her occasionally and were full of sympathy.
3
In fact, most of the poor people in the village were students who had been taught by Teacher Xie. Those who could go to school at that time were mainly boys. Almost all the women in the village were malicious towards Mei Jie.
Since childhood, Mei Jie has always been a beautiful girl with a gentle personality and a good mother like Teacher Xie. Even if the early appointment of a baby close, the door matchmaker is still in an endless stream. This really makes the girls of the same age in the village jealous.
After so many years, that group of girls had long been married to men, but when it came to Mei Jie, they still could not conceal their resentment: “Let her go, go far away, and see how she seduces men.”
We all thought that Mei Jie would never come back again. Unexpectedly, mei Jie came back when I was just one year old.
When Mei Jie suddenly appeared in the village market, many people went to see her. After three years of wandering around, Mei jie became a complete madman in everyone’s eyes. Her clothes were as ragged as beggars and she could not speak clearly. No matter what people asked her, she could only stammer. Mei Jie staggered around the market, smiling and showing her yellow teeth at the sight of the children. The children in their parents’ arms were frightened and cried.
Mei Jie’s old neighbor also rushed over and asked her to go home and open the door. Mei Jie did not understand at all. Just when everyone was at a lost end, Mei jie suddenly got up and ran all the way into the small woodshed in the bamboo forest in front of my fourth uncle’s door. The woodshed door had not been locked all the year round. Mei jie pushed open the door and turned around to smile at the villagers who had followed her all the way.
This woodshed was boss Yan’s former home. Mei jie remembered nothing but this place. The onlookers of the villagers, can not help but sigh again. The woodshed was already empty, so someone suggested: “Let Ah Mui live here.”
When Mei Jie first came back, some of her students always went to deliver some food, thinking of the past. As a result, the women in the village became more and more “united”. Whenever She went out on the street, the women scolded her and told her to hurry back, “don’t come out and make a fool of yourself”, or deliberately imitate the way she talked and hesitated. Mei Jie giggled with them.
“What about being beautiful, but I didn’t end up a madman who didn’t even know how to get home.”
“It is. What about the descendants of the landlords? In the end, they do not give college students a hard time.”
In those years, the village women used to say these words with smiles on their faces. A few of us yellow-haired children listened nearby, and also probably know that “Ah Mui” is not a good person.
Whenever the women abused Mei Jie in groups, if one or two men were present to dissuade her, they would retaliate with more ferocious blows: “Oh, and teach me a lesson. Let’s see if I don’t tell your wife. Let her teach you a lesson!”
The men could only shut their mouths.
The adults in the village in order to prevent children from privately run to play in bamboo, made up, big and small story to frighten us, say what lived inside the devil, devil, traffickers, want to put the wood house is the only road to the village to seal, also is not a day for two days, just say the boss back to the village that once broke out.
Every once in a while, someone would go to sibo’s house to “ask for advice” and say that the road was closed, almost all of them were middle-aged women. The fourth uncle and his wife were so good that they were afraid to close the road. Mei could only wait for her death in the house, so they did not agree.
“That crazy woman, dead dead bai, what good rare, when the time comes to catch someone’s child, we all don’t regret!” Four “heard repeatedly refused, middle-aged women have been said so.
Once, I followed my mother to four uncle’s house to be a guest, run out to play between meals. Dimly see the bamboo forest path in the wood room, then a small step to go inside the bamboo forest, slowly close to the wood room.
When I got to the woodshed door, a dog suddenly started barking, and I began to cry. I heard a woman in the room talking to the dog in words I didn’t understand. Soon the dog stopped barking, but I was so scared that I couldn’t stop crying. The elder of the family found me by crying. When she saw me in front of the woodshed door, her face turned white with fear and she picked me up and went away.
Back to the four uncles home, the mother has been looking nervous scold me to run, said I was almost abducted, four uncle Niang also with a finger hush 1: “wench has been crazy Mei Jie cry, you don’t frighten her. The mother understood, and said no more.
I was already more than four years old at that time, and I could understand more or less what the adults were saying. Then I knew that it was a man who lived in the forest, not a monster at all.
From the fifth year after she came back to the village, I don’t know why, she began to live in seclusion and hid herself in her small woodshed.
Listen to four uncle said, Mei elder sister in the woodshed behind the kind of order, although the people to deliver food less, but every once in a while, also always someone secretly put some rice in her door. Her continued absence from the village made one think she had left again.
The gossip about her in the village began to fade, and even the women, who often made sharp jokes about her, softened their words to her. I asked my mother, why did those people stop cursing Mei Jie? Mother just sighed and said, who has so much energy to look at others all day, just need to vent the pain of life.
Such a quiet day, until the boss back to the village day.
4
After seeing Boss Yan once, Mei jie reappeared in the village — only once a month. Standing under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village, she kept her eyes on the direction of the car from dawn to dusk, as she had done many years before.
Every time I saw her, the younger students would run away in fear, and some naughty older students would spit at her and say “Good Luck.” She only smiled innocently and did not answer. The children, seeing that she was a bully, gathered together and spat at her.
The women in the village were angry again, saying that they were afraid she would frighten the child, and they would go to the village officials and say, “Hurry and tie Mei Jie back.” At noon one day, a large crowd gathered at the village committee. Women stood there and shouted, “We should have closed the road last time. Now let’s know we made a mistake!”
Some of the village officials were old friends of Teacher Xie. They argued that it was not humane to bind Mei Jie home. Mei Jie didn’t do anything bad to hurt anyone, even though she was stupid, she was always in good order and should not be allowed to go out. She said so, and other cadres agreed. But many of the women still did not give vent to their anger, and we made a lot of noise, and finally there was no discussion.
Thus, everyone could still see Mei Jie leaning against the banyan tree. When passersby passed by, she would stare at each other without speaking. Passersby shouted, “Don’t look at me,” and she hid her face behind a tree until the man had gone far enough to turn around.
Even the children felt that it was no longer interesting to make fun of her, and the young children were no longer afraid of her. Some students even asked her like adults when they saw her after school: “Have you had dinner, Mei Jie?” Mei Jie didn’t say anything. She just nodded her head and everyone laughed together.
Once, My friends and I went home from school, on the way to buy a Popsicle, just stopped by the big banyan tree, the body of every pocket turned over, but also did not find a dime. Looking up, I just saw Mei Jie holding a very old fifty cent note in her hand. She handed it to me and smiled at me. I hesitated to take this fifty cents, small friends quickly pulled me away, while walking said: “crazy money how dare you want ah, turn you!”
I looked back at Mei Jie, she was still looking at me, a face of loss.
Madman again terrible, but also than the heart
At that time, Mei Jie was no longer as untidy as she had been a few years ago. Although her clothes were still full of holes, her face had been washed clean. Her long and large hair was tied with black hair rings, revealing a bright and small face, but her eyes were dull.
Seeing that she was no longer as dowdy as she used to be, the vicious comments from the women fermented again: “This crazy woman, she comes out one day a month, who is she really trying to seduce?” She just laughed at everyone, whether it was abuse or ridicule, regardless of how they insulted her.
I always thought Mei Jie could understand those words, but I was not sure. I remember in class, an old teacher said that the woman under the tree was a good person and we shouldn’t be afraid of her.
5
On the 10th anniversary of Teacher Xie’s death, her former students discussed holding a memorial party for her, and the place was decided to be in mei Jie’s former mansion.
That day, about a dozen men and women went to mei jie’s small woodshed to ask her to take out the house key and open her big house. In all these years, no one had ever entered Mei Jie’s woodshed. Everyone thought it would be in chaos. However, when Mei Jie opened the door, the room was clean and tidy. When talking to Mei Jie, she seemed to understand what everyone was saying and kept smiling and nodding her head.
“Ah Mei, where is the key of your house? We are going to set up a mourning hall for Teacher Xie. Please take it out.” “Said the leader.
After hearing this, Mei Jie kept her eyes on the roof, seemed to be thinking, and seemed not to hear what others were saying. She was giggling to herself.
Everyone asked for a long time, but Mei jie did not say a word. “Well, she won’t have any. Never mind.” Just as the party was about to get up to leave, Mei jie suddenly got up, took out a bunch of keys from her pocket and handed them to the leader.
The day before miss Xie’s memorial meeting, the door that had been closed for 10 years finally opened. The house was dusty, and the yard was covered with thick moss. I followed my father to see the fun. I realized that Mei Jie’s house was so big. Although it had an old appearance, it could still show its old glory.
That day, a total of more than 30 adults and a few children to join in the fun, the adults together to the mansion inside and outside the sanitation, finally hung a picture of Teacher Xie in the hall, set up a simple spiritual place. On the ninth day of the ninth day, people invited the master to do things.
Later, the adults around the hall smoking and chatting, I and the children ran inside and outside to play, accidentally saw Mei Jie hiding not far from the house secretly looking at us. She seemed to have spotted me too, and before I could speak, she was gone.
After the memorial, Mei Jie did not appear under the banyan tree any more. She became the person who disappeared in the village again. After that, I went to middle school and high school, left home to go to college, stayed in the city to work, and returned to the village less than a year.
It was not until this Spring Festival that I paid a New Year’s visit to Sibo’s family that I found that the bamboo forest in front of Sibo’s house had been completely cut down. It was near the vibrant cauliflowers field, far and near, were all the small houses built in the village these years.
And the small wood room behind the vegetable field is still square and upright standing there, so many years have passed, the brick of the small wood room becomes extremely dark yellow, looks more shabby and shabby, very abrupt in a slice of foreign houses. But on the clean floor in front of the house, traces of careful cleaning were still discernible.
I asked The fourth uncle how all the bamboo was gone.
The fourth uncle said, “The bamboo grows so much and disorderly that it is of no use. The year before last, I simply cut it down and served it as a vegetable field.”
I thought for a while, and then I said, “It’s not convenient for Mei Jie to come out…”
The fourth uncle seems very surprised, like has not responded to come over the same: “Ha? Mui? You remember her.” Then he added: “She has not lived here since a few years ago. She has moved to Daguangling to watch over her mother. There she has built her own hut, but occasionally she comes back to clean it. She made you cry when you were a child, remember?”
Sibo looked at me with a kind smile on his face. I wanted to explain that it was the dog that frightened me, not Mei Jie.
When I go home, I have been thinking, another year, do not know the boss will return to the village. Sister Mei is also more than 50 years old this year. Has she let go of that romance?
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