Prose: Wormwood Green

Prose: Mugwort is Green

1

The sky was gloomy and the grass and trees were lush. I went to visit my grandma’s grave with my mother. I haven't been here for several years, and the deserted beach southwest of the small village is already overgrown with weeds. Splendens splendens, dogtail grass, dodder, bittercress seedlings, wild alfalfa, and some unnamed weeds are intertwined and growing wildly. Grandma and grandpa's tombs are hidden among them.

Just as we were gently pushing aside the grass with our hands, a piece of mugwort came into view. The green grass was in clusters, like crops that had been taken care of, growing neatly.

Could it be that this mugwort is also connected to human nature? I remember that when my grandma was alive, she often collected mugwort and either used it to wash her face and feet, or fumigated it and used it as medicine.

My grandma, who was born into a family of Chinese medicine practitioners, is half a barefoot doctor. A year before her death, my grandma, who was over eighty years old, dictated to me word by word each of her folk remedies, including mugwort.

II

People say that among my grandma’s four daughters, my mother is the most like her, both in appearance and personality. Looking at my mother now, I feel like I saw my grandma back then. She was thin, with nimble hands and feet, walking fast and easy, and speaking straightforwardly.

But in my heart, there is actually an inexplicable alienation from my grandma. The reason for the alienation may be that grandma has a different accent from ours and it is more difficult to speak. My grandfather’s family fled from Gansu and came to Inner Mongolia. I heard from my mother that before she got married, my grandma was the eldest daughter of a famous family, but because of this, she suffered a lot of torture and humiliation in the years that followed. Grandma and grandpa's ancestors were all famous local doctors, and the marriage between grandma and grandpa was considered a good match at that time.

Not long after getting married, my grandfather’s family was classified as a landlord and all the family property was confiscated. His life plummeted, and three years of natural disasters followed. Just because people say that there is a large area of ??land in Inner Mongolia that can be cultivated and cultivated, and there is food to eat.

Grandma and grandpa took several children and headed eastward while begging for food. At that time, my mother was less than ten years old. On the way, my grandfather and his family ate whatever they caught. Wild vegetables, leaves, bran bark, grass roots? Everything that could satisfy their hunger was eaten. But even so, the six-year-old daughter of the mother's sister, grandma, still starved to death.

According to my mother’s recollection, that girl was the most beautiful among their sisters, and she was the youngest in the family at that time. As a mother, we can imagine the despair and pain of grandma watching her children starve to death. Therefore, grandma never mentioned that daughter. Therefore, grandma warned us since we were young that it is sinful to waste food.

三

The turbulent years made grandma become more cautious and strict. My mother said that when they were children, they had to be extra careful when working and speaking. If they were not careful, they would be beaten by their grandma. Grandma is afraid, afraid that the children will encounter another accident, afraid that there will be another change in life.

The mother said that grandma was very strict with them and had many rules. Although she is poor, she requires the children's clothes to be absolutely clean, especially girls. They must stand and sit in a proper posture, not talk too much, let alone use foul language, and not make loud noises when eating. Before dark Must get home on time.

Even in an era when materials were so scarce, the old pots used in grandma’s house were strictly separated. Washbasins and footbaths could never be mixed, and underwear had to be washed separately.

At that time, people in the village laughed at my grandma for being pretentious. Now I understand that my grandma hopes that her children can live a clean and decent life. The traditional education she received when she was a young lady is destined to have a deep-rooted influence. her whole life.

IV.

As far back as I can remember, my grandma has always looked like an old lady with small feet, wearing a coarse black cloth all year round. Her hair is always combed meticulously. The short hair on both sides is dipped in water and tucked behind the ears, and braided with big black clips. In order to prevent the clips from falling off, aluminum holes for shoes are put on the back.

Grandma’s feet were bound and small. When we were children, we always begged to see her feet. Grandma reluctantly took off her socks, revealing a pair of obviously deformed feet. The thumbs and little toes could not stretch and were tight. It is painful to look at the other toes. But these little feet walk neatly and neatly, always reminding me of characters in shadow puppet shows.

When my mother wanted to take us to my grandma’s house when we were children, we brothers and sisters always resisted. Grandma is great, but we are afraid of her. Grandma has many rules, which makes us annoyed. Grandma's family is poor and she always eats noodles.

I remember that our house already had a blue brick floor, while my grandma’s house still had a loess mud floor for a long time, but my grandma always swept it away. Grandma's house was always filled with the smell of mugwort. At first, we were not used to the smell.

At my grandma’s house, I could often hear my grandma scolding my grandpa in sharp words. My grandpa didn’t talk much and was always silent. Because of our careless behavior, we were often scolded by our grandma. Grandma is an impatient person. She speaks with a pure Wuwei accent from Gansu Province. She speaks very fast and has a straight voice. Most of the time, we don’t understand what she is saying at all. We always look at our mother with confused expressions: What are grandma talking about?

Grandma has a lot of things to pay attention to. For example, during festivals, the cooked rice must not be touched but must be offered to heaven and earth first; and you must not say unlucky words when steaming or frying. , otherwise the Kitchen God will be angry; you can't point at the stars at night or your fingers will get pimples; don't throw dirty water on the earth after nine o'clock in the evening? Only after many years did I understand that my grandma, who seemed superstitious, actually had A piece of great wisdom, these rules of grandma exactly reflect a kind of respect and awe for natural life and the reincarnation of cause and effect.

五

My grandma is not idle all year round. During the spring planting and autumn harvest seasons, she and her grandfather would crawl in the fields, facing the loess and back to the sky, carefully tending the few acres of thin fields. , because he is a foreigner, his grandma’s family does not have much land. But grandma is famous in the village for her refinement and diligence. Grandma's hands are very skillful, and there seems to be nothing she can't do.

In the past, people did not have so much money to buy silk thread, so most of the things they usually used were homemade hemp ropes. It is made of a kind of plant silk called grate. After the grate stalk is cut down, a long or short silk can be pulled out from the stem. Grandma straightened them out and arranged them, then rolled up her trouser legs, soaked them in saliva and twisted them into braid-like hemp ropes on her calves.

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of hemp rope. It is used for tying animals, tying bag mouths, sewing curtains, and making shoes. Therefore, you can see grandma sitting on the ground rubbing hemp rope anytime and anywhere. Grandma's legs are slender and white, shining dazzlingly in the sun.

The curtains sewed by my grandma were very beautiful. She cut the sorghum stalks into uniform sizes, divided them into two layers, staggered them, and sewed them together to form a perfect circle. In grandma's house, the curtains were not only used as pot lids, but also used to store dumplings and steamed buns, and to cover large and small urns. Sew the sorghum stalks sparsely and it becomes a cage for steaming steamed buns.

Grandma can also steam noodles. I saw her rubbing and kneading for a while, her hands flying on the chopping board, and a small face figure appeared on the chopping board. Grandma used red beans to make its eyes and black beans to make its buttons. The belly of the noodle man is also filled with bean paste filling.

After steaming, we are often reluctant to eat it. We have to play with it for a while, and then we can’t resist the temptation, so we take a careful bite. The bean paste filling flowed out from the belly of the noodle man, and the smell is still lingering in my memory.

Grandma has many skills, including weaving basket heads from red willow, tying brooms with reeds, and boiling sugar syrup from beets. The most amazing thing is that grandma used parts of the pig body and alkali noodles to make it. Yizi, that kind of Yizi will not melt away easily and is very durable. One piece can often be used for a year.

The most impressive thing is that grandma never uses a basin to make noodles. Like a magic trick, she turned a pile of flour on the chopping board into smooth dough in an instant. Grandma can make pulled noodles that the locals can't make. They are very chewy, but also very laborious. They need to be stretched out by beating them hard on the chopping board.

Every time we go to see grandma, she will make noodles for us. Although the procedure is complicated and time-consuming, grandma never tires of it. Seeing us devouring our food, grandma would show a rare warm smile and often sigh: My dolls, you have caught up with the time.

Grandma’s needlework is also top-notch. He is good at sewing clothes, making shoes, and embroidering soles. Even at the age of over seventy, he still sews a lot of exquisite cloth tiger pillows for us. Grandma also often gave the handmade products she made to the neighbors in exchange for harmonious coexistence with the neighbors.

Six

Of course, the most miraculous thing is that grandma used mugwort to drive away diseases. The mother said that the siblings almost never took medicine. When they got angry, grandma made them a cup of moxa leaf water to drink. When they had a fever, grandma asked the children to soak their feet in moxa leaf water.

Around the Dragon Boat Festival, before the sun rises, grandma will ask grandpa to cut back bundles of mugwort with dew, spread them out in the yard to dry in the shade, and keep them for winter use. In her spare time, grandma would mash the dried mugwort leaves, rub them into moxa velvet, use them to light the moxa leaves and then apply moxa on the acupuncture points.

In that era when there was a shortage of clothing and medicine, grandma used these methods to get rid of diseases for the children, allowing the children to avoid disasters one after another. On the top of my mother's head, there is still a scar from moxa burn due to my grandma's mistake.

Of course, mugwort has far more uses than this. Grandma mashed mugwort leaves and mixed them with rice, then steamed the green glutinous rice balls, which were fragrant and delicious.

During one summer vacation, I went to the fields with my grandma to pick vegetables. On the way back, grandma's eyes were fixed on the ground. When passing by a clump of weeds, my grandma's eyes lit up. She gently picked it up with her hands excitedly and said, "Smell it." I approached with hesitation, and smelled a strong aroma, which was exactly the same as the smell in my grandma's house. Grandma said: Remember, the grass with this smell is mugwort. Although it is the most common grass, it is the most useful medicine.

Coincidentally, one time when I went to my grandma’s house, I had a cold and a fever. Grandma first boiled a bowl of ginger soup for me to drink, and then boiled a pot of mugwort water in the pot for me to soak my feet. Strangely enough, after drinking the ginger soup, I felt warm all over my body. Then I soaked my feet in mugwort water. The temperature rose from the soles of my feet. I gradually sweated and my whole body became relaxed.

Two hours later, grandma touched my forehead and felt relieved: the temperature has cooled down, everything is fine. From that time on, I fell in love with the taste of mugwort. To this day, I have been using the method taught by my grandma to get rid of colds in my family, and it works every time.

One day one year before my grandma passed away, I was at my fourth aunt’s house. Grandma asked me to take out the paper and pen in a serious manner. She dictated slowly, while my fourth aunt and mother translated beside me. I wrote down about twenty folk remedies that grandma was familiar with. At that time, my grandma was already over eighty years old. Seven

Grandpa’s departure is undoubtedly a huge blow to grandma.

That morning, grandma boiled water for cooking, and grandpa was still lighting a fire in front of the stove. Grandma habitually chattered endlessly, complaining that grandpa did not burn the fire brightly enough. As a result, my grandfather fell to the ground and never woke up.

When we went to see my grandma, we saw that her hair was obviously white. She was like a frightened rabbit, huddled on the edge of the kang, with uneasiness in her eyes. Grandpa's sudden departure made the sharp-tongued grandma start to become silent.

Grandma always squatted in the corner without saying a word, and her thin body became even more haggard.

That year, my second uncle wanted to build a new house, but my grandma’s main house was knocked down. After the new house was built, grandma said she did not want to drag her children down, so she moved into the small house in the south alone. Grandma said that when she is old, it will be the same wherever she lives. Grandma's hut is very small, with only one window, a kang, and a door. The only piece of furniture in the room was the red bed chest.

This big red chest has been with her since her grandfather was alive. In the past, it was placed on the front wall of the main house, and we had to step on a stool to open the heavy cabinet lid. The cabinet is always locked, and there are things that grandpa used to own during his lifetime, and there are also things that grandma considers precious.

We went to visit my grandma. She took out the key she had brought with her, opened the cabinet cover tremblingly, and took out a handful of dates, a few candies, and even a few wrinkles. Baba's banknotes were forced into our hands. We didn't want it, so grandma looked at us expectantly and murmured in a low voice.

We asked our mother: What did grandma say?

My mother kept saying: You eat, you eat.

For more than ten years after my grandfather passed away, my grandma insisted on living alone and cooking by herself. In her life of fighting against wind and rain, grandma got used to being strong, and her strength was touching. She often huddled in the hut, leaning against the small window facing the south. Looking into the distance, there is a vast land in front of the road. Grandpa is buried there, and the wormwood is green there.

Eight

Grandma’s body is getting thinner and thinner, her eyes are starting to become blurry, her legs are in pain and she can’t get off the ground, and not many of her teeth are left. When we went to visit my grandma, she always held our hands and refused to let go.

Time pushes us forward and matures day by day, but it also ruthlessly takes away grandma’s youth and prime years. We helplessly find that grandma is old, which is sad.

My mother took my grandma to live at home. Within a few days, she clamored to go back to her small house. We know that grandma does not want to drag her children down. Grandma said that living in your own nest makes you feel at ease.

However, my grandma eventually became blind in one eye. After the examination, the doctor asked the family members: Did they cry excessively? My uncle and mother shook their heads desperately: My mother is very strong and never cries. At that time, I suddenly thought of my grandma’s departure from home when she was young, of her 6-year-old daughter who died young, of my third aunt who died young, of my grandpa who fell down and never woke up?

Perhaps it’s not that my grandma didn’t shed tears. , she just secretly shed tears in a deserted corner of the dark night. She didn't want people to see her crying, because she didn't want the living people to be sad anymore. People say that when she was young, grandma was a strong woman who spoke sharply and spoke her truth, but who knew the sadness and helplessness behind this strength?

After experiencing social changes and turmoil in life, for grandma, , I am lucky to be alive. The safety of the family is more important than anything else. In her twilight years, my grandma spoke little and had difficulty getting off the ground. She only ate a little food. She lay on the kang, looked at us peacefully, and murmured in her hometown dialect that was still difficult for us to understand. I could only vaguely understand that sentence: My dolls, it's about time you caught up.

Grandma, she chose to be strong and forbearing in the turbulent times, and taught us to be content and grateful in the era of peace and prosperity.

After 87 spring and autumn years, grandma was like an oil lamp that finally exhausted her last bit of vitality. When we went to visit her, grandma held our hands without saying a word, her dark eyes filled with sadness. There was a faint light, like a lamp in the wind. Finally, her eyes gradually dimmed and slowly closed, and then she breathed a sigh of relief: Dad, I can finally be reunited with you.

　九

Now, my mother and I have been habitually storing moxa sticks and moxa velvet at home in case of emergency. When someone gets sick, the first thing we think of is Mugwort.

Every Dragon Boat Festival, my mother would cut bundles of mugwort, part of which would be used to drive away moisture and evil spirits, and part of which would be dried and stored in the shade. This is a kind of inheritance and a wealth left to us by our grandma.

Every time I smell the fragrance of mugwort or see the figure of mugwort, I think of my grandma. She once said that mugwort is the most common grass and the most useful grass. As long as people need it , it sacrifices itself selflessly.

In the lingering fragrance of mugwort, I seemed to see my grandma walking through the green mugwort bushes. She stood on tiptoe, stepping on the dew, facing the morning sun, her thin figure but walking towards the distance without hesitation?