The Qinhuai River has been vast and endless for a long time. No one knows where it comes from and where it goes.
Anjiacun lived at the very edge of the Jinling boundary and was the poorest class of working people in the Dalong Dynasty.
No matter when or where, never underestimate the people's love for the land. The land represents food. As the saying goes, if a Taoist family has food, they will not panic.
Old Man An also likes land, just like everyone else, but the savings that Old Man An has saved from fishing for half his life are not enough to buy one acre of land.
He often sits under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village and stares at the vast Qinhuai River in trance. When he meets someone, he always asks first: "Old man An, have you bought land today?" Some people greet people sincerely, and some people just say hello.
It's meant to be a joke.
Old man An always smiled and held up his dry tobacco pipe, revealing his two front teeth that were already yellowed and chipped, and said: "Kuaili, kuaili."
Old Man An only has one son. He went to Shuo in Northern Xinjiang a few years ago, but there was no news about him again. Old Man An always worried about his own safety. His son was guarding the territory in Northern Xinjiang. No matter how he comforted himself, he
I already knew in my heart that my son would never come back.
A few years ago, Beijiang's son used to bring some money from time to time. Although life at home was difficult, he could still get by. In addition, his daughter-in-law washed clothes for the wealthy families in the village. But since then, his son has never let him go.
Someone brought money along with me, and my daughter-in-law knew something about it, so she ran away with him within two years.
Old man An didn't complain at all. His daughter-in-law was only in his mid-twenties, so he couldn't be forced to keep her as a widow. Fortunately, his daughter-in-law ran away and left him with a grandson and a granddaughter, which made his old age less lonely.
Although he is no longer lonely in his later years, life is getting harder and harder. Old man An finds that his body is getting older and worse every year. A few years ago, he could fish out a large net of more than ten feet by himself. Now,
Together with my little grandson, the fishing net that is several feet long is more than enough.
The fish in the Qinhuai River are big, fat, and extremely delicious, but Old An, his grandfather and his grandson, who make a living by fishing, have never been willing to taste the fish in the Qinhuai River.
Every time he saw his grandchildren staring at the fish and swallowing their saliva, Old Man An would always comfort him: "Wait two years, wait another two years, grandpa will buy the land and leave it to you to eat whatever you want."
The fish in the Qinhuai River are very plump. A pound of fish can be sold for twenty or thirty cents in Jinling City, but in Anjia Village they can only be sold for three cents per pound. A pound of fish is not as expensive as a pound of grain.
Old man An has never been to a big place. He doesn't know the price of fish outside, and he can't walk such a long way. Every time the people in the county restaurant come to collect fish, they curse and cry with a sad face and say it's expensive, it's too expensive.
If you add more money, you won’t make money.
Old man An raised his old hands uneasily and begged for one more penny. The grandchildren are big and have big appetites, so they can eat.
Old Man An was sitting under the old locust tree by the river and smoking cigarettes as usual. Old Man An himself also found that his health was getting worse day by day. The only doctor in the village said that he had tuberculosis, and Old Man An didn't know what tuberculosis was.
, he only knew that it was not long after he rescued himself. Old man An had not gone to the river to fish for a long time. The doctor told him not to work too hard, and he might be ignored if he was tired.
Old man An usually loves his grandson An Gou'er the most. Poor people don't pay much attention to their names. The worse the name, the better they can make a living. Dogs, dog eggs and the like are everywhere.
The daughter-in-law disagreed, saying that it was okay to use dog as a nickname, but it would not be a joke to people as a famous name. Since we lived by the Qinhuai River, we should take advantage of the grace given by God to settle down the river.
An Gou'er's name is An Jianghe. An Gou'er is thirteen years old. He has never been handed over to An Jianghe. Gou'er has always been his name. Everyone who sees him calls him Gou'er.
After smoking a pack of cigarettes, Old Man An began to feel uneasy. Usually, after smoking a pack of cigarettes, his dear grandson would have returned from fishing long ago, but today there was no trace of the boat.
Old Man An had been working as a farmer for half his life, and he already knew everything on the river. He picked up the withered grass by the river and looked at it for a while before throwing it to the ground: "There will be at most a breeze on the river today, so it is impossible to capsize the boat."
Old Man An's wrinkled face was undoubtedly worried, and he kept wandering by the river, muttering "Bless the River God, Bless the River God."
It seemed that Old Man An's prayers had an effect. A small boat finally arrived on the sparkling river. Yes, it was his own boat. This boat had been maintained for more than ten years. Old Man An was a good person.
Old man An grinned, knelt down by the river and kept kowtowing, muttering "Thank you to the river god, thank you to the river god."
An Gou'er held the oar and felt uneasy. He didn't catch a few fish during today's fishing. Instead, he caught a man. He didn't know how long he had been soaking in the river. His skin was swollen and he couldn't even see his original appearance.
It seems that after An Gouer rescued this man, he didn't catch a few fish. The fishing net was damaged by this man. It will take at least a few days to repair it. I wonder if grandpa will get angry.
The boat stopped at the shore, An Gou'er threw off the rope, and Old Man An took the rope and tied it to the old locust tree consciously as always. Old Man An was so poor that he didn't even bother to build a simple dock.
An Gouer jumped out of the boat with a low expression: "Grandpa, I didn't catch any fish today."
Old man An grinned: "If there are no fish, there will be no fish. Just come back. The fish in the Qinhuai River can't escape." After saying that, he touched An Gou's head with his cracked palms and looked happy, saying that his good grandson was back.
Well, it doesn't matter if there are no fish.
An Gouer's face was yellow and his muscles looked malnourished, but he had a lot of strength. When he heard that his grandfather did not blame him, he happily jumped onto the boat and carried the man he had fished out of the river.
He carried it down effortlessly.
Old man An's face tightened: "My dear grandson, why is there still someone else?"
An Gouer gently put the man on the ground: "Grandpa, I don't know how long this man was soaked in the water. I fished him out in a net. I saw that he was still alive and brought him back."
Old Man An sighed and took the few fish handed over by his grandson: "Then take them back. We can't just watch the living people die."
After walking a hundred or two hundred meters, we arrived in front of a house built with three thatched huts. The house was bare-walled, really bare-walled. There were no tables, chairs or benches, and the stove was an earthen jar propped up by a few stones built in the open air.
An eleven-year-old girl with a yellow complexion was carefully cooking porridge. When she heard the sound of footsteps, the girl turned around happily and shouted: "Grandpa, brother, the porridge will be ready soon, Xin'er will serve you some rice."
The girl's name is An Xin, and she is the granddaughter of old man An. Originally, old man An planned to name An Xin Gou Ya. Her brother, Gou'er, and sister Gou Ya were both easy-to-make names, but his daughter-in-law was not happy and said that the girl's name should not be used.
The name is so tacky, and I took the initiative to take the name An Xin. I am not ashamed of it, but I just want An Xin.
An An was originally in high spirits, but when he saw his brother looking at a man who didn't know whether to live or die, he became panicked, and hurriedly hugged the arm of Old An beside him: "Grandpa."
Old man An patted An Xin's hair: "Don't be afraid, good girl. This is your elder brother who saved people from the river and kept them alive."
An Xin felt relieved, and then looked curiously at the man on the elder brother's shoulder. His face was so disheveled that he couldn't even see his face.
An Gou'er carried the man into the thatched house and put it on the weeds. The An family didn't even have a bed, so they slept on the ground, rolling up the weeds all night long.