Neighbor Uncle Li
Li Zhiping
At this moment, it has been five years since Uncle Li passed away. I will think of him every year in the past five years.
Uncle Li has short and messy eyebrows, rosacea on his nose, a stiff chin on his slightly raised chin, and a dark beard. His hairstyle is also very strange. The surrounding hair is naturally curly and fluffy. There are small rings on the top of the head, but they are bare, which looks very funny. He had a fierce face, but he was always smiling, showing his teeth that were yellowed by smoking, and there were wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
The person I hated the most in my childhood was Uncle Li. When I was young, I was most afraid of meeting Uncle Li when I went out with my father in the alley. Whenever he saw us from afar, he would wave and say hello to us, showing his signature smile, and my father would pull me over to chat with him. When he saw me, he would pick me up and hold me in his arms, rub me with his stubble-covered chin, and I would scream in pain, struggle to escape from his arms, and slip away. He went behind his father's back and muttered that he was a bad guy. He was not annoyed, took out two candies from his pocket with his big black hands, stuffed them into my palm, and continued chatting with my dad.
Not only am I afraid of him, but other children in the village are also afraid, because he looks so fierce that no children dare to approach him. But he seems to like children very much. Whenever he sees a child, he will go over to tease and hug him. However, every child will burst into tears as soon as he picks him up. He can only giggle embarrassedly, and the adults will not Don't dare let him hold the child again. Later, every time when a child made a fuss, an adult would just tell him to go find Uncle Li if he makes a fuss again. The child would stop immediately and try again and again.
He also likes to give me nicknames, because his name contains the character "Ping", so he gave me nicknames like "Bottle" and "Can" all over the place. When grandma hears him calling me that, she will say that he is so immoral for such an old man. He would scratch the back of his head and grin, but would still happily call me nicknames afterwards.
But later I discovered that he was actually not that annoying. When I was in the third grade of elementary school, I came home from school one afternoon. After knocking for a long time, no one answered the door. There was silence in the courtyard. I simply sat at the door and cried. He came back at this time and happened to see me looking defeated. Unexpectedly, he did not call me by my nickname this time, but called my name and asked me what was wrong. I choked and said, "There is no one at home. Do they want me anymore?" He used his big rough hands. He touched my head and said, "What are you thinking about? You must have something to do before you go out. Let's go to my house first." He took me to their house. The aunt was serving rice, so he walked over and served me a bowl. , put a bunch of meat in my bowl, rubbed my head and said: "I'm as thin as a monkey, eat more." Then I called my dad. My dad said that grandma suddenly had a heart attack, and they rushed to the hospital without paying attention to me. My uncle saw that I was so anxious that tears were forming in my eyes, and he hurriedly asked about my grandma's condition. My father said that she had stabilized and would be back in a while, and I felt relieved. Maybe it was because the rice cooked by Auntie was delicious, or maybe it was because I was really hungry. I ate very deliciously and finished the big bowl of rice. Uncle Li saw that I was in a good mood, so he turned on the TV and let me watch cartoons. Dad and the others did not come back soon as he said. I started to feel sleepy before they came back. Uncle Li took me to bed. Later, I heard from my father that when they went to look for me, I was lying on the kang at my uncle’s house, covered with a blanket and sleeping soundly.
He protected me as I grew up and taught me to be brave. When I was young, I was as thin as a bean sprout, and because I went to school early, I was already young, so I naturally became the target of bullying by the bad kids in the class. There was a little fat guy in the class. The teacher stopped me on my way home after school and asked me for "protection money." If I didn't pay, he would beat me and "intimidate" me not to tell my parents.Once, when he was about to be bullied, his uncle saw him. He rushed up, pushed the little fat boy over, and said he would take him to his parents. He also said that he would go to school tomorrow to tell the teacher. He was carrying the little fat boy's clothes. The leader took my hand and went to the little fat man's house. His parents asked what was going on, but I didn't dare to say anything. The uncle touched my head and said firmly: "It's okay, baby. Don't worry, uncle." I'll support you." After I told the little fat man's parents everything, the little fat man's father slapped the little fat man on the head and asked him to apologize to me quickly and keep us here. When eating at his family, the uncle declined and said to the little fat boy: "If you bully her again, I will tell your teacher!" The little fat boy was like a deflated rubber ball, hiding behind his mother's back. The matter was resolved satisfactorily. On the way home, my uncle suddenly became serious. He asked me to be tougher and tell an adult if I was bullied. Then I nodded heavily, tears welling up in my eyes.
Later, Uncle Li's son got married, and he and his aunt happily moved to the city with his son. I thought they were going to the city to enjoy themselves, but within a year, they came back with their belongings on their backs, their faces completely gone from the pride and joy they had before. The gossipy women in the village said: Ever since they moved here, their daughter-in-law has never been nice to her. She is acting weird every day, and she doesn't even call her mom or dad. The couple recently got divorced because of this. They came back for their son's marriage. Uncle Li seems to be much older when he comes back this time, and his back is not as straight as before. He doesn't go to the village square every day to chat. He just stays at home. When the sun is nice, he moves a small bench to sit in the yard to bask in the sun. When it's cloudy, I'll sleep on the kang. For half a year, my son and daughter-in-law hardly came back. Uncle Li passed away the next summer.
The deceased is dead, but Haitang remains the same. It turns out that he will also leave. The sky during the summer vacation of the second year of junior high school is destined to be filled with gray clouds. Uncle Li left suddenly. He was less than fifty when he left because of a heart disease. This was the first time I understood the horror of death. When I heard the news, my mind went blank. During his funeral, I stared at his portrait quietly. The person in the photo was still smiling. He was such a smiling person, but I could no longer see his smile. He lay quietly in that small coffin. No one called me my nickname or teased me anymore, but then no one said they would support me anymore.
I have already traveled far away, and my memories are being devoured bit by bit, but when I stand in that familiar village, those dusty memories will reappear in my mind one by one.
(About the author: Li Zhiping, a native of Minle, a student of the School of Liberal Arts of Hexi University.)
