Remembering the past

The world of cicadas comes once a year again. In the city, I only heard cicada calls, but I couldn't find the little climbing monkey that saw the world for the first time.

When I was a child, my hometown had apple trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. The trees were more than ten years old, with thick branches and a harvest-like temperament. The branches were bent by the accumulation of sediment. . There are very few cicada monkeys in the apple fields. Because of their strong crawling ability, they are almost absent from the tree. Either they have not climbed the tree or they have already arrived. A distant leaf has long escaped our sight. The apple fields are rich in small cicadas, which are five times smaller than the average cicada monkey. The appearance of the cicadas can't convey the rustic temperament on the table, but when we were young, the cicadas were not full of the flavor of RMB as they are today. At that time, we just ate for ourselves. Nowadays, people are smart enough to wrap themselves in tape and collect lots of money. They think about how much hardship we paid for this food back then. These memories of heavy flavors fill that cicada season.

1. The apple orchard that belongs to us

Cicada monkeys are nocturnal animals and only start to appear after dark, so our time must follow them. Mom cooked early, took the tools after dinner and set off. It's too elegant to say it's a tool, but it's actually just a flashlight and a plastic bag that doesn't leak. Sometimes my father would take us there, but more often than not we would go with our friends.

There is another name for Cicadas called Climbing Monkeys. Does the origin of this name mean that they will not deform until they climb to a high place? I don’t know how they determine the direction of crawling in the dark night. No matter where its cave is, it can accurately find the direction of the tree, and then climb up the tree. It's rare to see a stupid cicada that deforms when lying on the ground. I don't know if its home is too far away and it has no time to reach a high place, or if it is born with a slight disability and cannot determine its direction. There are also some who are indifferent to secular matters and do not rush towards the tree with the crazy army, but simply find a piece of grass and start their own transformation path, but these are also a minority.

Now is the time to really get to the point and catch the little cicadas. The apple trees in the Southland are small and easy to get in and out, but there are also few small cicadas. After going there a few times, I couldn’t eat enough to fill the gap between my teeth, so I stopped going. Maybe the gap between our teeth was too big. point, small quantity cannot meet our needs. Our destination then turned to Northland, which was an old orchard. But for us, apart from catching more cicadas, it really has no attraction at all. Let me tell you in detail.

The first task when we started to take action was to kneel down and worship the land and fruit trees that support food. Because the branches are very low, it is rare to encounter fruit trees that can be penetrated deep while standing up. Usually we have to kneel down to crawl in, and sometimes we need to lie on the ground and crawl forward. Thinking about it now, we were so stubborn at that time that we would not go in if it was not easy to get in. There was such a huge orchard. But at that time, I really didn’t miss a single tree. I always felt that there were a group of little cicadas waving to us deep in the dense leaves. In order not to wear out the pants, a pair of pants for more than ten days is too luxurious. If you sweat a little or your pants get wet from dew, it would be inconvenient and uncomfortable to wrap them up, so we usually wear loose shorts when we go to catch little cicadas. There are many disadvantages to wearing shorts, that is, the exposed skin is inevitably bitten by mosquitoes and scratched by grass branches. So during that period of time, the legs were still my own legs, but a lot of colors were added to them, making them lively.

My friends and I usually walk in a row of trees, not too far apart, otherwise we can easily get separated. Also, if we spend a long time walking under the trees, we can easily lose our sense of direction. I remember one time, I didn’t know why my friends didn’t go, my sisters didn’t go either, and I didn’t know why I got so addicted. I went down alone and wandered unscrupulously in the dark woods. I say it's unscrupulous because I usually have friends on both sides of my row of trees and I can't get involved. But today is different, it's all mine. So I took a flashlight and shined it on the tree. If there were more trees, I would go in. If there were fewer trees, I wouldn't go.

Later, this method was not very useful, because at a glance, there were so many. However, in the middle and late stages of the cicada season, the deformed skin left on the tree is much more than the wet and fleshy cicadas. Usually he ran over with surprise in his eyes, and as soon as he touched the shell, it crackled and shattered with a pinch. Suddenly, all the strength he had just gathered to grab the energy dissipated, but he immediately launched the next target.

I don’t know how long I have been deep in the fruit forest. When the excitement passed, I unconsciously looked around and was dumbfounded. The surrounding scenery was the same, the dark night sky was silent, and there was no sound. It seems that I can hear the sound of the little cicada trying to crawl, and I suddenly know one thing in my mind. I am lost and have no direction. What should I do? The heat from the running and crawling gathered on the face and formed a blush. At this time, it was even more hot when I was nervous, and I started to run restlessly with my heart beating fast. I no longer had the interest to continue looking at the cicadas under the trees. I anxiously pushed aside the ambiguity between every two trees and wandered around randomly without any direction. There was no time, and I don’t know how long it took. I was sweating all over my body and my face was red. The bag of instant noodles in my hand made an uneasy sound, and most of the bag of cicadas squirmed happily, seeming to laugh at my deserved punishment.

Looking forward to meeting someone and asking how to get out. But I don’t know what happened today. My family didn’t come, my friends didn’t come, and no one else came either. Everyone seemed to have agreed to take a collective day off today, so I couldn't hear a single person's voice, and I couldn't see a single flashlight beam.

It seems that I can only rely on myself. I climbed up the tree and looked around from a high place. The flashlight's irradiation range was too small and I could only see a very small area. Without exception, it was all Apple trees drowned in a sea of ??black. I walked aimlessly in one direction, wondering what they were doing at home, whether they were competing to watch TV, or gathering to play poker, and they didn't come with me. I caught all the little cicadas, and I won’t feed any of them tomorrow morning. I’ll eat them all by myself. I don’t know what time it is. I feel like I’ve been out for a long time and they haven’t come to see me. Whose land is this? There shouldn’t be any graves in the land. So I started to recall various ghost movies on TV. My messy imagination made me more panicked and scared, and I became more determined not to share the delicious food with them.

I don’t know how long it took me to get out. When I stood alone on that path that was no longer full of strangeness and panic, my eyes were a little moist, but I didn't cry. I was so happy. I just wanted to go home quickly. I just wanted to see the lights on at home right away. I just wanted to hear the noisy sounds at home. I swore that I would never come alone again.

But the next morning, the little cicadas were put on the plate, and we divided them into ten pieces each. For four children, it was such a small amount that it was gone before the taste could be tasted. .

2. Next to the ancient Yellow River Road, under ten thousand acres of pear blossoms

Many memories of catching cicadas are left in the apple orchard in the night, but there will always be a few of them every year. They have to catch them outside. The outside mentioned here is the old Yellow River route passing by the county seat. After dinner, my father got on a tricycle and took my mother and four of us siblings. It was a very strong labor force and we arrived at our destination in half an hour. It was very crowded, with cars of all sizes parked. The pear orchard in the distance was densely lit with lights, and it was very lively. Our home is all clay soil, while both sides of the old Yellow River route are pure sandy soil, where the famous ten thousand acres of pear orchards are planted, the hometown of Dangshan Su Pear, the Pear Blossom Festival, and the King of Pear Trees, with various lofty names.

Compared to the environment at home, this place is simply paradise. The soil at home is hard and lumpy clay, but here is sandy soil that is very comfortable to step on with bare feet. There are not many grasses and it is very clean. The most important thing is that pear trees are not as short as apple trees. Basically, you don’t have to kneel and climb. You can go deep inside by bending down.

Our apple field is rich in small cicadas, and even the big cicadas can’t be seen for several days. However, under the pear trees in the sandy land, there are a lot of large cicada monkeys, and each one is so big. People say it is very satisfying. But what’s not satisfying is the quantity, because there are many people going there. Sometimes, after walking a long way, you can’t even look straight, but the trees are bare and there is not a single one.

To sum up, someone has been here just now, and sometimes if you are lucky, you can catch a few on a missed tree.

In short, despite the large number of people, it is actually not directly proportional to the harvest. Although there are a considerable number of cicada monkeys here, there are too few of them belonging to us, so when they were finally gathered together, there were not many. Not all people who come here come to grab food like us, there are many people who come here to sell it on the spot. At that time, I didn’t understand the children who were selling cicada monkeys. Are you really willing to sell them here without eating them? But I still have to thank them for their existence, because in this way, my father will buy dozens of dollars from them to get enough of the taste that the four of us have coveted for a long time. Cicada monkeys at that time were not cheap either, costing two cents each.

Later, the owners of the opera garden realized the huge business opportunities and stopped allowing outsiders to arrest them at will. They guard their land very tightly and wrap plastic tape around the trees so that they can catch them easily without much effort. Think about them, they are really smart. Since then, the pear orchard that people love and hate has never been there again, and the pear orchard has become quiet. But the street outside the opera house was still bustling with people counting cicada monkeys and counting banknotes one by one.

3. We catch cicadas at night and dig cicadas during the day.

We catch cicadas at night and we are not idle during the day. What are we doing? We go dig cicadas under the tree.

We took a small shovel and started digging around where there was a cicada hole under the tree. Shovel away a layer of soil on the surface, hoping that a new hole will appear outside this hole. Sometimes I dig a large area and there is not even an ant hole. If I find a hole, I will jump up with excitement.

I think this kind of thing is very exciting, as difficult as winning a lottery, and the probability of disappointment is very high. Let me talk about the moment of winning the prize. After removing the surface soil, if we find something in the hole, we will immediately kill ourselves and shout uncontrollably, and quietly take the next step. First check the depth of the hole. If it is shallow, it will be easier to find a small piece of wood to pull it out. But more often than not, it is difficult to distinguish between depth and shallowness. Generally, at such times, we will be very cautious, or use a stupid method, that is, dig deeper from the outside of the hole. In order to get a bite of food, I wanted to dig three feet into the ground.

During the day, we couldn’t get much from this method, not more than ten, but we still waved shovels and searched desperately, saying it was for a bite to eat, rather to enjoy the occasional surprises , even a hole will surprise you for a long time, imagining how many friends are around it.

We quickly cleared up the disappointment that often spread, and we always believed that there would be a miracle in the next shovel.

4. The delicious food in the world

After pouring out all the pain, it’s time to talk about something nice, and that is eating.

Speaking of eating, we have to know how to make cicadas. Usually the cicadas caught at night are washed first and then marinated in salt overnight, waiting to be cooked the next day.

My family’s method is different from the popular method outside. The current method in the market is to fry it, because this way it preserves its shape and is very eye-catching. Our cooking method adheres to the frying method (commonly known as kang in my family), which is to put a little oil into the pan, just like spreading eggs. Put the small cicadas into the pot, spread them flat on the bottom of the pot, apply pressure to them with a spatula, and flatten them so that they can be heated better.

The little cicada is finally coming out of the pot, it’s time to eat. No, eating is not the first thing we do. We have four big mouths waiting for this plate of delicious food, so we can't afford to be careless. So the first step is to divide, and then everyone stares at the plate of delicious food that is about to arrive in their mouths, and counts together, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, this is yours, The next person’s, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ten pieces for each person. When there are few left, divide them one by one, even if there is only one left in the end, It also has to be divided into four equal parts. Even so, we still have to worry about which piece of meat is more delicious. We have made this sharing absolutely fair. I don’t remember which one of them was more generous. The last one didn’t participate in the distribution. Anyway, I couldn’t miss a bite.

After portioning, it was time to enjoy the delicious food. At that time, I was reluctant to eat it in big mouthfuls. I chewed it slowly and enjoyed each piece carefully. In my memory, I don’t seem to have that feeling of eating until I don’t want to eat anymore. It always ends with something unfinished, which feels very unsatisfactory.

As for the taste, I don’t have that many words to praise delicious food. In short, we just think this is a delicious food in the world, which makes people want to go back to that moment in time.

In the past few years, I have eaten a few times, but they were all big cicadas. They were all deep-fried. Their taste was very bland, far inferior to my favorite small ones. With the cicada texture, I can’t taste the taste I once coveted.

Later, when I was in college, my hometown experienced heavy rain for three years. The rainwater accumulated and could not be drained out. The orchards were soaked in water for a long time, and they finally gradually lost their memory of life. I remember that May Day, it was the spring season when flowers were blooming, but in front of me was a bare and desolate place. Standing on the road to the orchard, looking at my home land in the distance, I couldn't move forward. The land, filled with rainwater, hungrily devoured all surface weight.

When the ground was finally dry enough to walk into, weeds grew wildly in the orchard that had not been taken care of for a long time. It is no exaggeration to say that no one would notice me standing in the grass at my height. The grass grows so strong, thick and tall. This is the first time I have seen the strength that the grass has hidden for many years, and it can be so crazy.

In the memory of weeding, they were eliminated when they grew to ankle height, and at most they were allowed to be as high as the knees. I have always understood that grass is small grass, but I have never imagined what big grass looks like. In the past, we used a small shovel to weed, but the tools at that time were sickles, big shovels, and axes. When the grass is finally removed, the bare land and the bare apple trees wait for their owners to give them life again.

Since then, the apple orchard that accompanied him throughout his childhood and was always proud of disappeared, and the world that existed with the apple orchard also disappeared.

Even if you go back, you can't relive the years that are gone forever.