The hillside and the woods are covered with graves. This is the largest cemetery in Dalian City, with about 200,000 graves. Perhaps it is because the living are afraid of death. Apart from the people who attend funerals and sacrifices, few people come here.

Laomagou is a scattered cemetery in Taishan, Dalian. The gulf is several kilometers long. The hillside and the woods are covered with graves. This is the largest cemetery in Dalian City, with about 200,000 graves. Perhaps it is because the living are afraid of death. Apart from the people who attend funerals and sacrifices, few people come here. When I was a child, there were two small villages on two hillsides opposite the mouth of Laomagou, and there were not many people. My uncle's house lives on the hillside on the left.

There are orchards around Taishan. Every summer and autumn, there are green green flowers, and in autumn, there are red fruits all over the trees. Before the 1990s, Taishan belonged to the suburbs of Dalian, and the natural environment here was basically primitive. Laomagou is in the valley opposite Taishan Water Purification Plant, about a few miles away from my home. The green mountains and clear waters are beautiful, which makes people feel refreshed. Taishan has now become a prosperous city, and those beautiful orchards will remain in history forever.

Taishan Water Purification Plant was built during the period when Japan occupied Dalian. The hillside was covered with green trees and a gray concrete water tower on the top of the mountain. The water purification plant is surrounded by dense trees and shrubs, and hares, birds and snakes regard this place as their own paradise. The hills of the water purification plant are surrounded by stone city walls and iron fences. The yard is extremely lush with flowers, plants and trees, and a small canal flows through water. The hillside path is winding and can be reached under the water tower. From spring to autumn, birds sing, cicadas sing on the hills of the water purification plant, making people feel refreshed and as beautiful as a fairyland. When I was in elementary school, I had several classmates living in this courtyard.

Laomagou is a ravine extending westward from the water purification plant, also known as Mazigou. "Lao Mazi" is another name for wild wolves or wild dogs by Shandong people. Wild dogs and wild wolves like to eat human corpses. Because there are many wild wolves and wild dogs in this huge cemetery, they are called "Lao Magou".

html More than 0 years ago, people from Dalian called the Shandong people who broke into Guandong "Hainan Die". "Hainan Die" refers to people who came to Dalian to escape famine in the south of the sea. Shandong people came to Dalian and had no relatives and lived a miserable life. After their death, they threw them into this ravine with a roll of mats and allowed wild dogs and wolves to bite them. Over the past century, countless "Hainan Dig" that have penetrated into Guandong have been buried in the depths of Mazigou.

Dalian locals are called "Bazi here" to show their differences from foreign Shandong people. In fact, "Bazi here" and "Hainan dig" are the same. When they live in poverty and die of starvation, they are still thrown in Laomagou. During the Japanese and puppet period, the coolies who carried large bags of laborers, bricklayers and laborers on construction sites lived in the harbor at the bottom of society, work was dangerous, life and safety were not guaranteed, and many people did not even have names after their deaths. People who came to Dalian, Shandong to make a living have no place to live after their death. Mazigou is a chasing grave that abandons lonely ghosts. The people who died over the years have been layer by layer. Although Laomagou can count the number of graves with more than 200,000 helmets, no one can tell how many people were buried in the ditch.

In the 1960s, my father used his rest time to reclaim a few pieces of land in the gaps in the grave of Laomagou, and cut sweet potato here. Sweet potatoes are annual herbal crops, and the underground part can grow into round, oval or spindle-shaped roots. The shape, skin color and flesh color of the roots vary by variety or soil. In addition to being a staple food, it is also an important raw material for food processing, starch and alcohol manufacturing industries. Roots, stems and leaves are excellent feed. The side dishes with its stems and leaves have a special flavor, which is still loved by me, my family and many people.

Sweet potatoes can be cultivated by seedlings, or a piece of tender vines with new leaves can be cut off from the creeping stems and vines that have crawled, and they can be cultivated and grown directly. In difficult times, people mainly cultivate sweet potatoes for their land cultivation. I am the eldest son. Every time my father goes up the mountain, he will take me there and ask me to help him do something within his ability. I have learned how farmers' children can do such work as land preparation, ridge preparation, seedlings, watering, weeding and turning vines. After I went to the countryside, these skills really played a big role.

The old magou in spring is beautiful. The hillsides are covered with locust trees and some shrubs called cotton locust sticks. The forests and hillsides are also covered with various weeds, mixed with colorful mountain flowers.Lush grass and trees submerge the terrifying graves in a pleasant green, relieving people's visual horror.

There is a stream that has been flowing for many years in the ravine, and there are very small fish and a kind of shrimp in the water. The shrimp looks very strange, about one centimeter long and has a curved body. When it is caught in the hand, it will jump back into the water after hopping in the palm of the hand. Although the game of catching shrimps is boring, it is the only game I can play while working.

In summer, the grass and trees are lush. If the sweet potatoes do not turn over when they turn over, the vines will take root underground, competing for nutrition in the soil and reducing the yield. My father often takes me to turn over the sweet potatoes. One day, when my father was taking me to work and rest, I heard the chirping of grasshoppers on the hillside.

Grasshopper is a large singing insect with a body length of up to 50mm (40-55mm). The female insect has short forewings and cannot sing and pronounce it. Male shellac wings are longer than female insects, thicker and more developed. The male insect's forewings has a sound file, a scraper and a pronunciation mirror. The friction between the two forewings can make a sound, which is graceful and loud.

After obtaining my father's approval, I tiptoed to a shrub to catch grasshoppers. The voice of the grasshopper was very loud, and I tried my best to myself: I must catch it. When I got to the bushes, the grasshopper stopped chirping. I held my breath and squatted beside the bushes and waited patiently. The sun was burning on her body, and the air in the woods seemed to stop flowing, and sweat kept flowing down her body. Because I was afraid of disturbing the cucumber and escaped, I squatted on the ground and didn't dare to move, and my eyes kept searching. The grasshopper finally made a chirping sound again, and it seemed to be right under my eyelids. I have myopia, so I can only press my face against the bushes and search carefully, but I can't see the grasshopper. I had to divide the groves in front of me into different areas and searched one by one. Finally, I saw a grasshopper lying among the leaves on a clump of branches. The two wings behind it open and close, making a pleasant squeal. I held my breath and stretched out my hands and gently surrounded it. The grasshopper discovered the danger and jumped away at once. I stared at the direction of its escape and gently moved my footsteps to chase the bush. This time I saw it, the grasshopper lay under a few dense leaves, and his two tentacles were shaking around, like a radar antenna. I gently stretched out my hands to aim at the place where the grasshopper was lying, and quickly attacked and held it in my hand. I caught the grasshopper and was very happy, so I gently pinched the grasshopper with both fingers and stood up. Unexpectedly, a piece of dust suddenly popped up in front of me, and my body sank with a "thump" under my feet, and I didn't know where I fell. I was so scared that I screamed: "Oh!" Dad came up and pulled me out of the pit. Then I realized that I had fallen into a pit. Several decaying coffin boards were stuck at my waist, my upper body was outside the grave. When my father pulled me up, I saw my feet stepping on a few bones in the grave.

At this time, my face must be particularly ugly. Dad picked me up suddenly, came to the ground, stroked my head with his hand, and whispered my name: "Weiguo, don't be afraid." Dad has never been so kind to me. I leaned in his arms and immersed in happiness.

When my mood returned to normal, I found that the grasshopper was still holding it in my hands. Dad said, "Don't be afraid, wait for me for a while."

Dad picked up his sickle and cut a few willow branches on the hillside. He looked at me, then sat on the ground and used his clever craftsman's hand to make an exquisite cage. My father put the cucumbers into a cage, put a few freshly picked pumpkin flowers to make the cucumbers' food, and hung the cage on the bicycle and took me home. After returning home, the grasshopper cage was hung in front of my window and kept chirping all day long. The friends at the neighbors were very envious. The next day we went up the mountain to catch grasshoppers. This summer, each of us caught several grasshoppers. However, the playmates caught no grasshoppers as loud as mine.

Autumn is here, and my dad takes me to dig sweet potatoes. When I arrived in the field, my father first taught me to use a sickle to cut sweet potato vines, and then taught me to use my ponytail to dig sweet potatoes. When I learned these labor skills, my father said to me, "Boss, you dig in the field by yourself first, and I will send the sweet potato vines home.”

When I went out in the morning, my father and mother discussed: “The stems and leaves of sweet potato vines can be eaten, and the vines can be dried and burned as firewood and cannot be thrown away. "

I remembered the incident when I fell into the grave. I was a little scared and didn't dare to agree to my father.

Dad pointed to the sun in the sky and said, "It's okay in broad daylight, I'll be back in a while. "

After my father left, I was digging sweet potatoes in the field alone. I didn't know how to get scared when I started working. It was also interesting to digging sweet potatoes. As soon as I finished my head, pink sweet potatoes appeared under the soil that was opened, each weighing half a pound. I could dig out five or six sweet potatoes. I was very happy. After a long time, my father came back and brought me a bag of biscuits and a bottle of soda. I was very happy. This was the most luxurious reward for me, because I couldn't eat these things normally. The sky gradually darkened, and the sweet potatoes were finally digging them all. After filling two baskets, there was still a lot of them in the field. It seemed that they could not be transported at once.

Dad discussed with me: "Boss, don't throw away sweet potatoes in the field. I'll send them back first and pick you up. Is it OK? "

Dad never talked to me in this gentle tone. With excitement, I agreed without hesitation: "Okay! "

Dad looked at me hesitantly, but he was not relieved. After all, it was almost dark, and it would take an hour or two to go back and forth for about ten miles. When Dad left, he said, "I'll be back in a while. "

When my father disappeared among the trees, fear rose to my heart again. The sky gradually darkened, and it was pitch black around me. The mountain wind was blowing, and the forest made a rustling sound. From time to time, there were bursts of childlike crying (the cry of owls) in the forest, which was extremely scary. The tombs and the graves on the hillside lay there like monsters in the night, which was extremely scary. I was so scared that I squatted beside the pile of sweet potatoes and didn't dare to move. It was strange that when people were afraid, they would hear various strange sounds. The more they heard, the more they were afraid, the more they were afraid of hearing strange sounds. I started to tremble, and my body trembled constantly.

Just when I was about to despair, A few lights suddenly appeared in front of me. These lights were getting more and more, flying towards me gently. The lights flying up and down were like colorful chains, which made people feel magical. I tried to catch them with my hands, and suddenly caught a small insect with a shiny tail. I put the small insect into a soda bottle and started to catch the second and third ones. I caught more and more, and the soda bottle became brighter and brighter, green and very beautiful. I gradually forgot my fear and grabbed the ying firefly. I don’t know how long it took, and there was the light of a flashlight in the distance. It was my father who came back. I was so happy, and raised the soda bottle and waved it in the direction my father came.

It didn’t matter when I waved it, and I heard my father shouting: “No! "Then were the footsteps of the rapid running. This was the sound of two people running. My mother must have come because she was worried. When they came to the ground and saw that I was safe and sound, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Dad asked me: "What are you holding? "

I handed him the bottle, he smiled and said, "I almost scared me to death. I thought it was Zhang San's eyes? "

I didn't understand and asked, "Who is Zhang San? "

" is my friend, you don't know him. "Dad was actually lying to me. When I grew up, I realized that "Zhang San" was a nickname for wolves. If my father told me that there were wolves in this place, I would have fainted.

On the way home, I found that the light in the soda bottle was getting smaller and smaller, and my mother asked me to pour out the yinghuoworms. Although I was reluctant, it stopped glowing. It was useless for me to keep them, so I poured them out. Unexpectedly, these yinghuoworms soon glowed again as soon as they came out of the bottle. , They flew up and flew into the woods, looking like crystal-clear colorful chains from afar. After I read "100,000 Whys" in the fourth grade of elementary school, I realized that the fireflies shine by the oxygen in the air, and the air in the bottle is getting less and less, so of course they will not shine anymore.

Liuying gradually faded away. They once helped me drive away my fear and left me memories that I can never erase.