The scratching rain hit the window and the wiper swung quickly from side to side. In the darkness, a bridge appeared in front of us. This is the river-crossing bridge of Linxi No.5 Road. On a clear night, this is a beautiful rainbow on the Yi River. But in the storm, it has changed beyond recognition, and only the gray outline is faintly visible.
The vehicles on the bridge are moving slowly and carefully, so I think of my sister, whose name is "Yingju".
I was about fourteen or fifteen at that time. She is one year older than me and loves to laugh. When she smiled, she showed deep dimples. We are good friends. She is very gentle. She often plays with me to help me overcome the shyness of selling vegetables.
Because our small village has been growing and selling vegetables for generations. After graduating from junior high school, we will learn how to transport vegetables to the market and sell them successfully. At this time, we gained absolute control over money: all the small change sold in the market belongs to us children. Although it is a little hard, for many children, getting financial freedom is a great encouragement and temptation, so they are all looking forward to the early arrival of this freedom.
But the three of us are not interested in this. Mother is curious: Why don't our children want to go to the market? She doesn't understand my feelings: there are always some acquaintances in the nearby market, such as teachers and classmates. From the bottom of my heart, I am afraid to see the eyes of acquaintances coming to their stalls to buy food, and I don't know how to deal with these things.
Seeing this situation, Yingju, who also sells vegetables on the side, took the initiative to help me attract guests, take care of the eggplant peppers on the food stalls, and taught me how to say hello to acquaintances. Naturally, I am very grateful.
What impressed me most was her waist-high big braid, thick and black, bright and beautiful. But in summer, the weather is very hot, carrying this big braid is bound to be heavy and hot. But she doesn't mind!
Because she has a good plan: when she grows to one meter, she can get a brand-new bike! To this end, she has to endure three or four years of pain to get it, but she is fearless!
Because my father is in poor health, my mother's IQ is a little poor, and there are two younger brothers at school. It is an honor to lighten the burden at home!
She dropped out of junior high school before she graduated. I was lucky enough to go to the county to attend high school.
The afternoon when I went home in the summer vacation of my first year of high school, the weather was extremely sultry. I rode my bike with my schoolbag and bedding on my back and hurried to my home 70 miles away.
There were no clouds in Wan Li. Halfway there, God suddenly changed his face. Soon, dark clouds were gathering, lightning and thunder, and pouring rain came unexpectedly.
When I got home, I was soaked to the skin and my bedding was soaked to the skin. Only my schoolbag wrapped in plastic paper survived.
Early the next morning, there was a big news in the village: Yingju was washed away by the flood when crossing Lizhuang Bridge!
It turned out that early yesterday morning, she rode a bicycle with two bags of peppers and eggplant to the Tangzhuang market on the west coast of yi river. After selling vegetables in the afternoon, the rainstorm came and the Yi River surged over the bridge deck.
This old bridge, with a history of a hundred years, is a stone slab bridge paved with bluestone, and there are no railings on both sides of the bridge. This is the only way home. Dozens of miles along the river, there are only two bluestone slab bridges without railings, Liudaokou Bridge and Lizhuang Bridge.
It is very dangerous to cross the bridge at this time. There are many people waiting on the west side of the bridge. Everyone is watching, waiting for the rain to subside, and then crossing the bridge after the bottom comes out. But the rainstorm lasted for a long time, and it was not small until dark. Some people tried to step on the flooded bridge and walk to the east bank. Yingju, who had been waiting for a long time on the west side of the bridge, was also anxious to go home, so she took advantage of the light rain to push her bike onto the bridge.
The water on the bridge deck keeps flowing south. When she reached the middle of the bridge, she deviated from it. The bicycle on the right side of her body fell off the bridge first, and she grabbed the handlebar and was taken into the river! In an instant, cars and people were swept into the middle of the Yi River by the rolling river under the bridge!
At that time, there was no telephone, and people sent letters on two legs. It was not until midnight that the family knew that Yingju had been washed away by the water. Her father and family fished by the river with flashlights all night, but no body was found.
The whole village is sad, but helpless, helpless.
I cried a lot at that time, and I could only sigh that it was heartless.
Now, 30 years later, yi river and Shuhe River are connected together, and more than a dozen brand-new river-crossing bridges have already been built on the yi river. Rubber dams have also been built in Jiaoyi and Xiaobudong, flood gates have been built at Liudaokou (that is, Liudaokou Water Control Project), and flood gates have also been built at Jiangfengkou in Lizhuang, and a "five-river wetland" has been specially designated for land construction and ecological environment protection.
Wuhe Wetland is next to Jiangfengkou, on the west side of Lizhuang Bridge.
In sunny leisure time, I sometimes take my children to play in Wuhe Wetland. Watching the children enjoy the beautiful scenery of the blue sky, white clouds and green hills, I will still see the shadow of Yingju in my mind: the gaudy years, the oily big braid, the bicycle full of Chili eggplant, the water bridge covered with green slates ...
The car slowly passed the bridge, the rainstorm stopped, the afterglow of the sun was transmitted from the clouds, and a thin rainbow hung obliquely in the sky above the Rainbow Bridge.
I suddenly remembered a very comforting fact: Yingju's younger brother was later admitted to a water conservancy school and worked in Jiangfengkou!