Father in the snowy night

That year, in order to make a living for the family, my father joined the ranks of porters. He picked up an old car bought with borrowed money and set out on his way to Suzhou to pull coal.

At that time, the chassis of the scooter was with a small axle head, and it would be dead if you walked not far away. In this case, my father pushed up the car with a stick and changed the direction of the wheel so that the wheel could continue to turn. Father pulled such an old rickshaw from Lv Wangji, where we lived, across the county town, followed the board convoy and walked nearly two hundred miles to the Luling Coal Mine in Suzhou loaded with a truckload of coal, and then returned to his hometown step by step. In the early 1970s, the road from Mengcheng to Suzhou was still a sand road, which was very difficult to walk. Teammates are or father and son, or husband and wife two people a car, one person to build a car, one person to help. A single teammate has a donkey to help pull a condom. Because our brother and sister are still young, our mother wants to look after us at home, so my father can only earn his life on the road. When he was tired, his father parked the cart by the side of the road, took out the old aluminum pot, scooped up the water from the road protection ditch, found some wild firewood from the side of the road, and stewed the sweet potato noodle bun prepared for him by his mother for a meal. My mother finished her work early at home, estimated the time when my father got home, tied me to the big tree in the yard, and walked all the way down the country road to pick up the car for my father. After walking about ten or twenty miles, he greeted his tired father and helped his father with a car to relax his father's red shoulders a little bit.

From autumn to winter, my father can touch the road from Mengcheng to Suzhou with his eyes closed. As the Spring Festival is approaching, coal in the city is becoming more and more popular. In order to catch one more trip, my father no longer pulled the coal to the market town where we lived, but simply pulled the coal directly to the coal stack company in the county to sell it cheaply, and then turned back to catch the second trip.

On the afternoon of the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, after my father settled the bill with the handling company, he already had a considerable stack of RMB in his pocket. He clutched the thick stack tightly, thinking that the family could have a fat year.

Father went to the food station in the county. He thought to himself that if he wanted to cut a large piece of meat, he would also buy a few firecrackers and a pair of red Spring Festival couplets. Let the family have a good New year.

There were so many people waiting to cut the meat that it was easy to get in line with my father. My father pointed to the piece of pork that had been targeted for a long time and said, "give me that waist nest, five jin!"

The shop assistant cut five jin of pork for him. Father takes meat in one hand and pays for it in the other. Suddenly, my father's smiling face turned pale: his clothes had been cut and his pockets had become empty.

For a period of time later, it has become a blank in my father's memory. By the time he came to his senses, the food station was closed, leaving only a companion who sold coolies with him. Facing the comfort of his companion, my father's pale face suddenly became firm and said to his companion, "it seems that I have to ask for help from you." Please go home and tell Xiaoxia's mother and ask her to send me some bun. I'll pull it again.

The companion was surprised and said, "it's twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month, and the coal mines are on holiday. Whose coal are you going to pull?" Look, it's such a cloudy day. If it snows again on the road, what should you do alone?

The father smiled faintly and said, "I can't let their mothers have no money to weigh salt for the Spring Festival." I have to pull it again!

With the sweet potato noodle bun sent by his mother to the city overnight, with the capital borrowed from his companions and the northeast wind like a knife, my father stepped on the road from Mengcheng to Suzhou without hesitation. That night, my father walked very fast, he did not feel hungry, he did not feel tired, he did not feel the inconvenience caused by the night. When the door of the coal mine opened, his father had fallen asleep at the door of the coal mine.

Fortunately, my father was already familiar with the people in the coal mine, and although they had already had a holiday, they made an exception and sold his father a truckload of coal. Then my father pulled the car full of raw coal and rushed back one step at a time. When he came back, my father's pace was obviously much slower. The fathers of Sangtuqiao, Xishipo, Taoyuan, Xiao Yang, Shaba and Nanping set themselves one goal after another and moved forward one goal after another. It was also a blessing from God that the northeast wind at the head of my father had not dissipated at this time, and the car was much lighter when it was downwind. However, the heavy car still turned my father's back into a bow full of strings. By the time we reached the boundary of Mengcheng, although the sun could not be seen in the cold sky, my father calculated that it was already two or three o'clock in the afternoon according to the lunch time of the people by the side of the road.

Father stopped the car, took out the dry food his mother had prepared for him from the cloth bag hanging from the handlebar, and set up the pot and stove. When he took out the match to light it, he found that it had been soaked with sweat and could not be struck at all. The father shook his head with a wry smile, packed the matches, broke the frozen sweet potato cake, chewed slowly with the cold water scooped from the road ditch, recalled the process of losing money, and blamed himself for his carelessness. He thought it would never happen again.

By the time we got to Liangtu Mountain, it was already getting dark. At this time, thin snowflakes floated in the gray sky. Father panicked and couldn't help quickening his pace. He was afraid that my mother would be waiting at home, and he didn't know if she would come out to pick up the car and where she would pick it up. He can only pray that heaven will leave a way for the poor to live, so that the journey home will be smoother and his family will worry less.

Accompanied by flying snowflakes, my father crossed the Wo River Sluice and entered Mengcheng County. At this time, the lights were on in the city, and it was past dinnertime, and his coal could no longer be sold in the city. My father's heart was horizontal, pulled a truckload of coal, walked through No. 1 Middle School, passed the power supply bureau, and walked onto the Mengsan Highway. He wants to pull the truckload of coal home and let the family keep the truckload of coal for a good year. Although there is no money, but he has coal, he has a car of coal that can glow! With heat and light, the family will have warmth!

Supported by faith, my father ran along the sand road from Mengcheng County to Lv Wangji step by step. The snow is getting heavier and heavier in one li, two li Zhang, Wuliguan hall, seven li and twelve li, and the ground has begun to slippery. My father walked more and more slowly and gradually stumbled. He felt that he was going to collapse and dared not stop at all. As soon as he stopped, he would fall down and lie on the white snow, unwilling to get up again.

Just as his father was about to fall, a snowman appeared in front of him in the distance. Far away, the tears of the two people flow together, melting the flying snow between heaven and earth.

That's my mother.