Author: Sea Buckthorn
Picture: Sea Buckthorn
The names of the people have been withheld. The following stories are purely historical traces. Any coincidence is an accident.
Dogs, after being raised by humans, became humans’ friends. However, most words about dogs have derogatory connotations. Words such as dog thing, dog leg, drowned dog, dog-headed strategist, dog jumping over the wall, nonsense, dog's mouth can't spit out ivory, etc., including idioms: a dog picks up a mouse and meddles in its own business; a meat bun beats a dog and never comes back, etc. Most of them have derogatory meanings. Too many to mention.
Although I was bitten by a dog when I was a child, I still think dogs are more humane. In times of life-saving and crisis, or always accompanying the owner, as my mother often said, "You feed the dog and you still know how to be grateful and wag your tail."
Logically speaking: human life is supreme and equal. But life in reality is full of unequal treatment from the moment of conception.
In the middle of the last century, the adult rate of babies born was very low. Some children were sick and could not afford medical treatment. Many children died after catching a cold, and some were thrown away after birth. In the barren mountains and ridges, there is no cure.
My mother gave birth to eight children, including me and my four sisters, that is, two older sisters and one younger sister. According to my mother, my two older brothers died at the age of three or four. . My mother often said: Every time my father carried his brother's body and walked towards the snow or the river, his legs would be too weak to get on the kang when he came back. He felt like he had lost his soul for a year.
One of my younger sisters was given away, but the last sister was given away to no avail. The mother asked the father to abandon the baby, but the father remained motionless, smoking a dry cigarette and keeping silent. In her mother's weak voice and repeated urging, she silently carried the little sister and walked towards the grove by the river, just like sending away her three or four-year-old brother. When she got home, her legs were weak, but He lowered his head and smoked the dry tobacco vigorously. Later, my mother often mentioned that sister. It would be great if she could give it away...
Regardless of the severe heat or cold, abandoning babies who could not afford to feed them into the wilderness was a very common phenomenon in rural areas in the middle of the last century. Now, Thinking about it, it is indeed helpless and very cruel. In addition to poverty, another reason is the backwardness of family planning technology...
The reason why innocent newborn babies are abandoned is because a "poor" child is too poor to support himself and cannot earn the necessities of life. of food. Unable to feed them, they could only strangle innocent little lives...
I remember one midsummer day in my childhood, when the hot sun moxibustion roasted the earth. The red willow forest outside the village could block a little bit of the scorching sun. There is a little bit of shade, and it was the "children's paradise" I went to every day during my childhood.
One day at noon, when I was about five years old, the scorching sun was scorching all life on the earth. My companions and I went to play hide-and-seek in the red willow forest. The bamboo thorn and red willow forest by the river was very dense, which happened to be at my home. After the room, it was a bit scary for me to go in alone. While looking for a companion, I heard the sound of a crying baby coming from the red willow forest behind the house. I called some of my companions to take a closer look. It was a very healthy baby boy with white and tender skin and half-closed eyes. It was a hot summer day, and the sun was shining brightly. During a break from crying, a naughty friend threw a piece of trash over to see if he was still alive...
Poor parents in the world are so cruel that they are poisoned by tiger poison. We, as children, did not understand how he could be so cruel if he refused to eat his own children. Thinking about it now, when famine was widespread, how could an adult find the food needed to feed a person? The adults are indeed helpless. Instead of coming to the world to starve and freeze, it would be better not to let them come to the world.
Later on, there were also lucky people, and Gouwazi was one of them. As the name suggests, because it is related to dogs, his parents named him "Dog Wazai".
I think of that unfortunate baby, lying naked next to the red willow forest, babbling and crying. It was also the third baby boy born to our neighbor's aunt, and she really couldn't feed him. The scorching sun that was just abandoned returned to heaven.
I hid in the shade and stayed there. The naughty little friend picked up the clods and threw them over. I scolded him with the heart-wrenching sound, but I couldn't bear to read it suddenly, so I couldn't bear to look back and walked away. , this is a scene I witnessed with my own eyes, which I will never forget...
Things like this happened frequently in the countryside back then. Gowazai is one of the abandoned babies, he is the lucky one among the misfortunes
I remember there was a neighbor named Mr. Wang, the old couple had no children, and they raised a big yellow dog. On a late autumn morning, it was also an ordinary morning, and the morning light was still lingering outside the sky. The big yellow dog was barking. This bark broke the quiet dawn and caused an argument between us and the old couple. The old couple climbed up the window and took a closer look. It seemed that the dog had bitten back an animal. They went out with their clothes on and bent over. He knelt down and took a closer look. It turned out that the family's dog had dragged back a little baby. The old couple hurriedly took it home and wrapped it in a torn quilt. This time it was a boy again.
From then on, the old couple began to feed the child. After asking around for a while, they bought a goat at a high price. They took the goat with them every day when they went out and used the goat's milk to raise the child day by day. From then on, their family depended on each other. As a companion, for the children to study, and to raise the children into adults. In order to commemorate the yellow dog who was grateful for saving his life, and to thank God for giving them life, the child was named "Puppy".
From then on, the old couple poured all their love and efforts into the paparazzi and the sensible big yellow dog.
Year after year, day after day, Dog Wangzai finally grew up, started a family, and became a useful person to society. The dog was also the patron saint of the old couple, accompanying them Their family of three works at sunrise and rests at sunset. The growth of Gouwazai means that the big yellow dog and the old couple are getting old slowly. Gouwazai is very grateful. Although he is poor, he insists on giving the big yellow dog and the old couple their best. The end of retirement...
About the author: Lu Youcheng, whose pen name is Seabuckthorn, is from Horinger County, Inner Mongolia. He was born in December 1963. He graduated from North China Electric Power University in 1984 and is a senior engineer. In his spare time, he likes to write poetry and is good at philosophical prose poems. Articles are scattered in "Chinese Literary Artists", "Era Writers", "Literary World", "Literary Appreciation", "Hundred Essays", "Ginseng Flowers", "Reading Digest", "Short Novels", "Young Writers", "Bohai Breeze" and "Western Prose" Selected Issues. The prose poems "The Lost Village" and "Father" were selected into "Soul of China - 2020 Prose Poetry Annual Selection" and "Modern Poetry Classic Collection".
Email: 23885800@qq.com