On a hot afternoon, Pan Tian came to the big willow tree beside the pit early in the morning and looked up at the third grandmother's house next door. The chimney was still smoking. Guo Yang must have not eaten yet. Guo Yang is one year younger than Pan Tian and is shy by nature. His parents are working in other places and he lives with his grandparents.
Pan Tianyi was waiting for everyone to gather here. When he was bored, he walked around the big willow tree that was as thick as a three-person hug. Looking up, the willow crowns are dense and gloomy, blocking out the sky and the sun, and the thick willow branches spread out like umbrellas. They are estimated to be hundreds of years old. There are also several unknown big trees nearby, as well as a few poplar trees full of white flowers, standing on the west bank of the pit. Their tall and dense branches and leaves are reflected on the rippling green lake, exuding a charming atmosphere. A refreshing fragrance. In his memory, the pit seemed to have never dried up. Pan Tianyi sat under the tree and thought in a daze.
After a while, Pan Liang and his brother Xiao Liang walked over with their bellies in full support and their faces full of spring breeze. "You ate so early. I thought you were too lazy to stay at home!" Pan Liang said nonchalantly, "Sorry, I'm a little late, cough... cough..."
"Forget it, I don't know you yet!" Pan Tianyi stared at his bulging belly and dismissed it.
While they were chatting happily, Guo Yang peeked out from the earthen wall of his home. Seeing that everyone was here, he said anxiously: "Just wait for me, I'll be fine soon."
"Hurry up, the sun is setting."
"If it's too late, we'll leave!"
Guo Yang then took a corn bun and some small fish and vegetables and hurriedly ran out of the front door of his house.
So, everyone walked along the edge of the pit to the Guandi Temple in the north of the village.
Guandi Temple is located in the north of Keng, on the roadside of the fields in the north of the village. An asphalt road runs through Wangzhuang Village and Panlong Village from north to south. There are several paper mulberry trees behind the temple, which are covered with fluffy green tassels, hanging in bunches on the trees; if you pick them, sprinkle them with flour and steam them, they will taste crispy and have endless aftertaste!
Pan Tianyi and his playmates, only four children, came to the green brick temple and looked around. No one was seen inside or outside the temple. So, they ran into the old Guanye Temple like monkeys. The temple is just an ordinary three-room house with blue bricks and red columns, with a high threshold and wooden carved doors on both sides. On the gray roof, a pair of swimming dragons roar in the sky; at the four corners of the eaves, there are many mythical beasts, talking and talking. The sight of rolling clouds and wind!
As soon as Pan Tian entered the temple, the surroundings were dim and hazy. There was a square incense burner made of cement in front of him. It was covered with incense ashes. It seemed that no incense had been burned for a long time. Behind the incense burner, there is a clay statue, sitting upright, stroking his long beard. He is dressed in blue and has a red face. He squints and seems to be looking at the four children in the audience.
The four children were surprised and frightened. They knelt on the 2-meter-long wooden mat on the ground. They closed their eyes gracefully, put their hands on their chests, and prayed silently in their hearts! Pan Tianyi knelt on it at first, only to feel the pain in his knees; Pan Liang and Guo Yang next to him seemed to be in pain too, and after a moment of restlessness, they began to pray; Pan Tianyi gritted his teeth and knelt down devoutly, and a picture of compassion emerged in his mind. Heart-wrenching scene: a large field of withered wheat, big beads of sweat on my mother’s face... He kowtowed to his head and silently recited in his heart: "Please, Mr. Guan, please hurry up and let it rain." ,The wheat in the field is almost withered...",Thinking about it, there seemed to be a trace of tears left in the corner of Pantian's eyes.
After about a few minutes, several children looked up at the statue of Guan Ye, scanned the densely packed statues of gods next to them, and then looked at the red face of old Guan Ye. In addition, the temple was dark and gloomy, and they seemed like frightened sparrows. They all went to the temple. Disperse outside.
In the evening, smoke filled the air, and the sunset dyed the village red, illuminating the earth in mottled colors.
Pan Tianyi and his playmates were playing hide-and-seek on the paper mulberry tree beside the pit. This tree was not too tall, was thick and had many branches, and its small branches were particularly strong. Several children chased each other, grabbing branches and scurrying around like monkeys.
"Yang, come back for dinner!" Grandma Guo's voice came from the low courtyard next to her.
"Well, I'll go back right now!" Guo Yang responded to his grandma while carefully coming down from the tree.
"It's so disappointing! No one is chasing me anymore..." Pan Liang's face was covered with sweat, he was holding on to the branch as thick as his arm, and kept complaining.
"Let's break up. Let's play again tomorrow." Pan Tianyi very cautiously slipped from above, jumped to the ground, turned around and walked back to his home not far away.
As soon as Pantian passed by the gate of Grandma Guo's house, he heard Guo Yang talking to his grandfather about going to Guandi Temple to pray for rain. "Okay! Baby, if it really rains, grandpa, I will ask the whole village to build a stage for Mr. Guan!" Mr. Guo shouted heartily and loudly, laughing uncontrollably. The sound almost spread to the whole village. In human ears.
In the brick-walled courtyard next door, Pan Tianyi's mother walked to the sheep pen with a pile of hay pulled from the field, and sprinkled it on the ewe that had just given birth to four or five lambs... Pan Tianyi As soon as I walked into the courtyard, I found that my mother was much more haggard. She used to wear two pigtails and loved to comb her hair, but now she cut off the pigtails and sold them to pay for her sister's tuition. My sister has just entered the second grade of elementary school, and she takes time to teach her younger brother the words she usually learns. As usual, Pan Tianyi walked straight to the table in the main room and watched his sister study.
The night breeze was blowing, the sky was full of stars twinkling, and the dark night looked particularly bright.
In the quiet courtyard, a family of three was lying on a large mat. The weather was hot and dry, and I was tossing and turning and couldn't sleep. Seeing that they couldn't sleep, their mother kept fanning them with a fan.
Pan Tianyi looked up at the sky. The stars were densely packed, like pearls and diamonds sprinkled on the night, shining brightly!
"Mom! Are there gods in this world?" Pan Tianyi asked curiously.
"Yes, God lives in the sky!" Mother looked at the night sky affectionately. "God will bless our family safe and sound! May you be safe on the front line!"
"Why are there so many stars in the sky?" My sister seemed not to be asleep, attracted by the bright starry sky.
"Every star in the sky is the soul of everyone in the world! Look, that bright star belt spans the sky like a big river, which is the Milky Way! Maybe gods live in the depths of the river. There is a bright and big star on one side of the Milky Way. It is called Vega! On the other side of the Milky Way is Altair! According to the legend of the older generation, the Cowherd and the fairy Weaver fell in love. Because Weaver failed to return to heaven for a long time, she was discovered by the Queen Mother. Use a golden hairpin to draw a Milky Way between them, and punish them by never being able to be together. They can only see each other through the Magpie Bridge on the seventh day of July every year." Mother told the legend affectionately, and no one seemed to think so. hot.
"Mom, I went to the Guandi Temple to pray for rain this afternoon!" After Pantian heard his mother say that there are gods in the sky, he said what was in his heart, "Then will old Master Guan show up and make it rain heavily?".
"Silly boy, there is a time difference between the gods living in the sky and the human world! As soon as the gods take a break, several years have passed in the human world. Old Guan Ye, maybe he is also taking a nap, unable to see the suffering in the human world... "The mother comforted him and urged him to go to bed quickly. His sister has to go to school tomorrow morning.
"Oh, I'm asleep..." Pan Tianyi didn't ask any more questions. He lay on the mat, observing the stars in the sky in ecstasy, wondering on which star the immortal was located?
It was just dawn, and there was thunder in the sky! A long-awaited heavy rain is coming.
Mother woke up her sister, picked up Pan Tianyi who was still awake, and placed her on the wooden bed in the main room. She had just packed up the mat and sheets. It started pouring rain in the sky, and bursts of lightning and thunder spread across the sky and countryside.
In the early morning, the long-awaited voices of the villagers rang out in various courtyards in the village, "It's raining! It's finally raining--"
Pan Tianyi fell into a hazy sleep, listening to the sound of rain hitting the windowsill outside, and seemed to have entered a dream. In the dream, he met the long-awaited face, and his father held him under the big willow tree behind the house... .
Outside the house, there was a slanting wind and heavy rain, and the thunderclouds were rolling, like a dragon king coming down to earth, spreading sweet rain on the countryside. The water in the well is full, and the water in the river in the west of the village is also roaring, regaining its former vitality and strength!
(PS: I remember when I was a kid, probably in the 1990s. At that time, it hadn’t rained for about two or three years. Every spring and summer, everyone would go to pump wells and pump water from the river. Irrigating crops, and then all the water in the river dried up... Later, four children went to Lao Guanye Temple to kowtow and pray for rain. I don’t know what wishes they made. I just remember that it really rained heavily the next day. The memory is profound. Maybe there really are "gods" in this world...)
