People asked her where her hometown was. She said in Yongkang.
My sister Yao was born in August, 20 19. She originally planned to visit her hometown in the Spring Festival of 2020, but it has been three years since the epidemic, and she has never been back to her hometown, her hometown.
In the Spring Festival of 2023, her dream of returning to her hometown finally came true.
Ready to go home?
Yaomei is the name of the youngest daughter in Sichuan and Chongqing. Since ancient times, there has been a saying in China that "the emperor loves his eldest son and the people spoil him". My sister's name is Zhang Yiduo, with a sister and a brother on it. She is the youngest. Yaomei is full of expectations for the Spring Festival in 2023: because of this Spring Festival, she can finally go back to her hometown to see her grandfather who she hasn't seen since she was born.
June 5438+October 2023 10, due to the change of epidemic policy, all parts of China no longer advocate celebrating the New Year in situ as before.
My family lives in Chongqing, and I was infected with COVID-19 virus a month ago. When I learned that my parents had been "active", I began to make plans to go home during the Spring Festival.
This plan is quite difficult. We had planned to fly to Hangzhou to visit my 90-year-old grandmother, that is, Yaomei's great-grandmother, but she was not infected with COVID-19, so she gave up the idea of visiting her. In addition, Zhang Wenhong also called on it in June 5438+1early October. If the elderly are not infected, it is recommended not to visit them.
After calculating the time of work and holiday, we finally decided to fly to Shanghai on New Year's Eve, 65438+1October 2 1, and then transfer to Yongkang by high-speed train. Many years ago, we didn't choose to go home for the Spring Festival. I didn't expect this day's journey to make us feel the full flavor of the year.
Knowing that we decided to go back to Yongkang, Yaomei jumped and jumped excitedly in the living room. She has never been on a plane or a train. The farthest door she has ever been outside is Zigong, Sichuan, her grandmother's home.
During the trip, I thought that the high-speed rail ticket for New Year's Eve would be very crowded, so I brushed the railway 12306 and was always ready to grab the ticket. Later, I took the high-speed train and found that it was not as crowded as I thought, and there were still many empty seats.
About 65438+ 10 month 1 1, Yaomei entered the countdown state. The first thing she says when she gets up and goes to bed every day is to ask her mother, "Mommy, how many days will we go back to Yongkang after today?"
Ten days, nine days, eight days, seven days, six days, five days, four days, three days, two days and one day.
on Chinese New Year's Eve
65438+1October 2 1 is a noon flight from Chongqing to Shanghai.
We made an appointment with the business car in advance. Yao Mei asked, is this car specially designed to pick us up? I nodded. Then the whole family put on masks.
We have always been contradictory on the issue of masks. I don't think it's necessary to wear a mask in the hot sun, but my wife insists on wearing it, saying that you can't prevent viruses and flu. "Do you have to wear a mask all your life?" His wife's silence was a compromise, and she didn't insist on wearing a mask for Yao Mei when she got on the bus.
Along the way, I can finally breathe freely without wearing a mask and panting.
As soon as the driver of the commercial vehicle got on the bus, he said, you are lucky to have a car. Six-seater cars are very tight now, and there is hardly any. I didn't tell him that I started to make an appointment in Gaode the night before, and the driver didn't take the order until one hour before leaving the next day. It seems that after the peak of the epidemic, the flow of people in Spring Festival travel rush has recovered a lot. In addition, many people have not gone home for three years, and the desire to go home for the New Year has become particularly strong.
In order to be on an equal footing with my brother and sister, before returning to my hometown, I took my sister to get an ID card, so that she could pass the high-speed rail gate with her ID card and boarding pass, or quickly pass the high-speed rail gate with her ID card.
When I arrived at the airport, my sister showed off as soon as she got her ID card and boarding pass, like an adult. She opened her eyes and studied the airport, a huge transportation hub for people coming and going. Chongqing airport prepared a New Year's Rabbit red envelope for every passenger. When someone in need picked it up, Yaomei ran to get one.
After checking the luggage, we began to board the plane. This is my sister's first flight. Before boarding the plane, we pointed to the plane at the airport and told her that we would sit in this thing, then fly to the blue sky and float to Shanghai with white clouds.
Yaomei said, ok.
I was really in front of the plane with the roaring engine, but my sister was so scared that her legs went weak that she refused to climb the stairs of the plane anyway. I followed the crowd into the hut with my timid sister in my arms.
The weather was fine all the way and the plane flew smoothly. Two hours later, we landed at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, half an hour ahead of schedule. It seems that the airport on New Year's Eve is not as busy as expected.
Perhaps because of deregulation, some people haven't seen the sun, and there are no crowds on the Shanghai subway 10 line and Hongqiao high-speed railway station. G732 1 Shanghai-Yongkang high-speed train, until we got off, many seats were still vacant.
When the train left Shanghai and entered Zhejiang, it was already dark, and the villages along the line braved beautiful fireworks. My sister is close to the glass and looks at it with wide eyes.
The flavor of Zhejiang seems to surpass that of Shanghai, especially the countryside written by Lu Xun. When the train passes through Huzhou, the frequency of fireworks blooms becomes more dense. The news said that firecrackers were sold this year, and Liuyang, the production center, was out of stock. It seems to be true. "Firecrackers are one year old, and the spring breeze warms Tu Su." The scenes described in Wang Anshi's poems have been circulated for thousands of years.
Grandpa drove to pick us up. It was raining lightly in Yongkang, and it was probably past seven when we got home. It was New Year's Eve, but Yao Mei was so excited that she swept away the fatigue of her journey and ran from downstairs to upstairs.
She looked at her old house curiously. She said she was not hungry, and she wanted to set off fireworks.
Yongkang is a county-level city in central Zhejiang. Fireworks and firecrackers are prohibited during the Spring Festival in 2023. Therefore, since the Lunar New Year's Eve, our city has been full of firecrackers and smoke, just like a war.
Later, firecrackers were so loud that we couldn't hear each other at dinner. So we put down chopsticks and went to the yard, joined the fighting team, lit rockets, ground squirrels, butterfly cannons and fantasy teenagers.
We live in the countryside, Shangkao Village, Tangxian Town, Yongkang City. Because of firecrackers, the countryside is more lively than the city. Guns exploded in the night sky, illuminating streams, crops, fields and highways.
Grandparents prepared a lucky money for Yaomei. According to our custom, red envelopes should be put under the pillow to sleep, otherwise they will be stolen. Yaomei believed it, ran upstairs with a red envelope, went to the bed, carefully buried the red envelope under the pillow, read it over and over again, and rummaged it over and over again.
We can't watch the Spring Festival Gala because of the loud firecrackers. After setting off firecrackers, Yao Mei sat on the sofa clamoring to grab a red envelope with her brother and sister's mobile phone. After a burst of noise, she finally couldn't hold on, tired and sleepy, and fell asleep in the rumble of firecrackers. No matter how the firecrackers exploded outside the window, she couldn't wake Yao Mei who was sleeping.
Go back to your hometown
In our small village, compared with usual, the Spring Festival in 2023 is still a little strange. Because some people have basked in the sun and some have not, many young people in the village have not actually gone home. Everyone who wants to go home has come back, and those who have no sunshine are afraid to go home. During the Chinese New Year, not many people visit each other, because you don't know if the other party has passed.
After meeting her grandparents, big uncle and little uncle, Yao Mei quickly learned a few words of Yongkang dialect, which is her fifth language after learning Mandarin, Chongqing dialect, Zigong dialect and English.
When I first got home, grandma asked Yaomei in Yongkang dialect, "Is dinner too narrow?" Did you have dinner?
Yaomei didn't understand, but after explaining it several times, she quickly learned this sentence.
Later, I walked around the village. No one knew her and she didn't know anyone. The old man always asks curiously whose child Yaomei is.
In Yongkang dialect, Yao Mei limped and asked people, "Is supper too narrow?"
The other party was happy when they heard it, knowing that it was a foreign child, and then continued to tease Yaomei with Yongkang dialect. Yaomei didn't understand, so she ran shyly behind us and leaned out to look at each other.
Shangkao Village is a village with a long history. I, my mother, my grandfather, my grandfather's ancestor, at least can't tell how long Shangkao Village has existed.
However, after my research with Yao Mei, Shangkao Village has existed for at least 625 years. Why? Because in the center of the village, there is an ancient camphor tree, the treasure of the town and village. The huge trunk is full of branches and leaves, covering the sky. Yongkang Municipal Government has set up a protection board for this ancient camphor tree, which says that the tree is 620 years old and its signature is 20 18.
According to the age of ancient trees, this village has existed for at least 625 years, that is to say, in the thirty-first year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, ancestors lived in Shangkao Village.
Grandpa pointed to this ancient camphor tree and told Yaomei that he refused to eat when he was a child and was chased by his foster mother and climbed up the tree. The ancient camphor tree protected him from the pain of flesh and blood.
On New Year's Day, I took my sister to climb a nearby mountain called Tashan, where my grandfather who died 23 years ago was buried. I said to her, "Your grandfather is buried here, and there is a tree cut down by my father."
Actually, I don't know what's the point of going back to my hometown. This is a very profound problem. Generations of China people, even if they went to Taiwan Province Province and the United States and flew over the sea, the most precious memory in their minds is the memory of their hometown, especially their childhood.
You haven't been back for a year, and your hometown hasn't changed much; I haven't been back for three years, and many things have changed. For example, there is one more road here and one more house there. Although many things have changed, the feeling of home and the memory of childhood are still there, clearly in my mind, and will emerge from time to time.
Taking Yaomei back to her hometown feels like recreating the childhood memories and impressions of her hometown in her mind to the mind of this three-year-old child. She may not remember them now, but she will remember them after going back to her hometown several times.
Perhaps, the inheritance from generation to generation is like this.
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Zhang Xiaohui Economic Observer reporter
Capital Market Department reporter
Engaged in the news industry 12 years or more, focusing on current affairs and company news reports, good at interviews, investigations, evidence collection and breakthroughs. Since 2006, he has worked in the East China News Center of Economic Observer, and in 2008, he was stationed in Chongqing, responsible for news reporting in Southwest China. Resident in Chongqing.