The summer cicadas chirped hoarsely in the middle of the summer morning, the countryside's concrete highway was illuminated in white, a gutter alongside the highway that floated with household garbage steamed with a fishy odor, and the concrete garbage pond alongside the highway emitted the putrid smell of rotten watermelon, attracting a swarm of green-headed flies that buzzed and danced about.
The boiling heat seemed to drive every living thing to a sheltered place. Only one person sat by the garbage pool, her ear-length hair slatted with dirt, her upper body bathed in a dirty cotton jacket of indistinguishable from its original color, her lower body in knee-length tattered fall pants, barefoot, her eyes staring straight at one spot, her mouth chanting a single loop of the phrase, "I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy ... ..."
Her name is Chunhua, and her family is poor. Her father is an orphan, originally lived alone in the earth brick house on the high dam, thirty-something years old or single. The village chief saw him as an honest man and gave him several girls, but when they saw that he was alone, they turned their backs and left. In the end, the village chief said, "No ordinary girls will do, so let's look for a defective one, so that we can continue the flame." Her father also wanted to find a quilt warmer, agreed to the village chief's proposal, so a little crazy girl from the outside village married over, that is, spring flowers her mother.
Although her mother was crazy, her fertility was good. The first year added a fat boy to the family; the second year added a daughter; and then two years later gave birth to spring flowers. Fortunately, of the three children, only the second daughter is as crazy as her mother, and the son and Chunhua's intelligence are normal.
Chunhua had no friends since she was a child, and the children were all unwilling to play with Chunhua, who was dressed in dirty and tattered clothes. She always kept her head down and followed the children far behind, or squatted far away from where the children were moving, watching them enviously as they jumped rope, kicked the shuttlecock, and jumped on the leather band.
At school, no one wanted to share a table with Chunhua, because they were all children from the same village, and they were afraid of Chunhua's crazy mother, and Chunhua was also categorized as a crazy person. So, Chunhua sat alone in a corner of the classroom, alone, more and more gloomy.
Chunhua's poor grades, barely graduated from elementary school and dropped out, more and more out of place with the village children. Neighbors always heard her yelling at her crazy mother and crazy sister at home. She scolded them with the most vicious words and told them to go to hell.
The older brother was as honest as his father and feared this sister. Every time he watched her curse her mother, he shivered his mouth and whispered and counted, "What do you curse, it's already like this." Chunhua glared at him, he shrunk his neck and walked away, afraid to draw fire.
When Chunhua was 18 years old, she went out to work, went alone, and did not come back for two years. The first time I saw this, I was able to see that the whole family had a lot of money to spend on the project. But soon, Chunhua her brother married a demented and dumb daughter-in-law back, the family again noisy. Either the crazy mother and crazy sister cursing, or mute daughter-in-law babbling and screaming. Neighbors look at the family and shake their heads, saying that it is fortunate that the normal Chunhua went out, otherwise, stay in this family will also go crazy.
Where did Chunhua go? Some people say that they saw her working in a factory in Guangdong, and she became more beautiful, as if she had a foreign object.
One evening, the countryside on the bus down a floral chiffon dress, stepped on high heels girl, the girl smiled like a flower on the arm of a handsome boy. The girl took off her sunglasses, raised her head, smiled and greeted the villagers she met, and everyone realized that this fashionable girl was Chunhua.
For the first time, Chunhua's house was surrounded by neighbors who came to see the fun, and the young man broke through and walked outside the house to make a phone call, gibberish in a foreign language that no one could understand, and his expression wasn't very good.
The next day, the young man disappeared, the villagers who rushed to the morning train said they saw him sad face in the car and left, alone. The first day of the year, the police said, "I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get the money, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get the money.
New Year's Eve, disappeared half a year of spring flowers back, although only wrapped in a common black down jacket, can not hide her beauty. Fair face, high nose, fleshy pink lips, thick black hair cascading over her shoulders. Only she did not smile like last time to greet the neighbors, silently dragging a large suitcase back home, almost no longer go out, and did not hear her curse the mother.
The enthusiastic neighbors introduced a distant nephew to Chunhua, the family is better than Chunhua's family, he is a carpenter, the matchmaker said is quite honest a young man.
From the first blind date, you can see that the young man is not generally honest, the unknown will think that his mother in the blind date. The old woman's sleeves are pulled up high, speaking of the spittle flying, saying one after another that the family conditions are very good, absolutely will treat Chunhua like their own daughter, so that she can live a good life. The young man did not say a word, sitting behind her, occasionally nodded in silence, eyes glanced down the spring flowers and quickly moved away.
Perhaps it was touched by the phrase treat her like a daughter, Chunhua quickly married. The first few months, Chunhua every time to go back to her mother is the husband riding a bicycle camel back. When she met neighbors on the road, she always greeted them with a smile and enthusiasm. Neighbors said, Chunhua girl finally made it out, although her mother's family is still a mess, but she is considered a good home.
A few months later, I heard that Chunhua was having a hard time at home. Although her husband treats her well, she can't do anything about it, and her mother-in-law is in charge. The first time I saw this, I had to go to my mother-in-law to ask for money to buy a sanitary napkin, and I was told, "Save some money, and don't think you're going to spend it on a good family."
Chunhua once went back to her mother's house and wanted to bring her father a bottle of wine. The mother-in-law said, "Your mother's house is still less than a house full of crazy people, so don't stick to the crazy and come back to hurt my family." Chunhua did not refute, her mother's family does have a group of crazy people, this is a fact.
Chunhua occasionally do something wrong, will be scolded by her mother-in-law, "you will not be the same as your mother is a psychopath, right! You can't even do a little thing right, you're really unlucky to marry a poor and stupid person."
Chunhua went back to her mother's home less and less, and occasionally saw her, and went back to her childhood low-eyed look, and even felt that she was a little afraid of people's proximity. When she saw someone approaching from afar, she would go around and walk away.
A year later, Chunhua became pregnant. I heard that her mother-in-law seemed to treat her a little better, scolding her less. Chunhua is still as silent as ever, and her mother-in-law doesn't dare to go west when she says east.
After the birth of the child, the mother-in-law brought the child to their room, in addition to breastfeeding, other times do not give Chunhua hold, said Chunhua is not good at home, not good with the child. The first time I saw this, I was in the middle of a fight with my mother-in-law, but she was not a match for my mother-in-law. She cried and begged, but her mother-in-law still wouldn't give her the child. The first time I saw her, she was crying, holding the child, she looked at the eyes of the ignorant will cry; the child was carried away, she misses the child will also cry.
After all the crying and screaming, Chunhua became silent, like a log either leaning against the door or sitting on a chair, staring blankly into the distance. Someone reminded her mother-in-law, "Your daughter-in-law seems to have the same problem as her mother." The mother-in-law was even more uneasy about giving the child to Chunhua.
After all, her mother-in-law was too old to carry a small baby day and night, and eventually fell ill. The child had to be handed over to Chunhua to bring, the child was born, Chunhua has never been brought to sleep all night, in the past is the mother-in-law sent the child to the room, she breastfeeding, the mother-in-law immediately carried away.
Chunhua stared at the child looked and looked, looked at the majority of the night, finally could not hold on to fall asleep.
Early in the morning, the mother-in-law just arrived at the door of Chunhua's room, she heard a mournful cry, she pushed open the door, and saw Chunhua standing barefoot on the bedside jumping, hands grasping his hair, his head shaking non-stop. The son sat on the edge of the bed, his hand wrapped around the motionless child, howling.
It turned out that Chunhua was afraid of the child cold, put the child in his arms to sleep, because most of the night is too excited not to sleep, the second half of the night sleep is too heavy, the child is too small, was covered in the arms, did not breathe.
After the grandmother cried grandchildren, grabbed Chunhua's hair backward dragged out the door, Chunhua was heavily thrown on the ground, the mother-in-law kicked the ground expression became indifferent Chunhua, while crying and cursing, "you crazy, really a crazy person!"
Chunhua was driven back to her mother's home, and from then on, she was really crazy, crazier than her mom and sister. Every day, she wanders around outside, doesn't go home, rummages through the garbage cans to eat, and at night, sometimes she sleeps on the ground, sometimes she stays up all night, wandering around the village like a ghost. And she always kept chanting, "I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy ......"
Afterword
Because Chunhua was always wandering around the village and not going home, she was targeted by the old bachelors in the village. Often the bachelors would take her home and help her bathe afterward for their own venting. This became an unspoken secret in the village.
Later, on a spring day when rapeseed blossoms were in full bloom, Chunhua, who was less than 30 years old, died by the roadside, and no one knew how she died or cared about it, and everyone just exclaimed, "Poor woman!" The village organized donations to buy her a solid wood coffin, buried deep in her family rape flower fields.