Wooden Cave —— Memories in Dust Cover

? Take a boat to the wooden cave, such as "Dongfanghong 10 1".

? The wooden cave is a place hidden deep in my memory. When I was a child, my aunt was there. In fact, Aunt Bo is not a teacher in Mudong Street, but a village below Mudong Town, which is far away from Mudong Town. Uncle is also a primary school teacher, but not here, but teaching in Dazu postal kiosk. It's not easy to go to my aunt's house. It is only possible for my uncle to pass through Chongqing to visit her mother-in-law on holiday.

? One summer vacation, my uncle decided to take me to the wooden cave. Early the next morning, my mother-in-law woke me up, washed me briefly, took some clothes and went out with my uncle. When we arrived at Chaotianmen Wharf, it was already dawn. We simply ate something and walked along the stone road by the river, along with the dark crowd, to the passenger ship moored by the river. The ship is very big, and the top floor of the ship is written with red characters "Dongfanghong 10 1". We sailed downstream with the ship, passed Tangjiatuo, Guangyangba, Yu Zui and Gangji Factory, and stopped at Mudong Wharf at noon.

? Mudong is an important post station in and out of Chongqing waterway in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Wang Wei, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem "The water town is in the boat and the mountain bridge is in the city" when passing through the wooden cave, lamenting the grand occasion of his water boat integrating into the city. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Mudong has become one of the prosperous towns in Sichuan and Chongqing because of its "five miscellaneous places, department stores and boats". According to the examination, the ships on the water gather into a city, and the wooden cave on the land is the hub of the post road. The establishment of the post station began in the late Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 350 years.

? After landing, we came to Mudong Town Street along a long string of stone steps on the shore, and then slowly climbed the steps along Qingshiban Road, passing through Mudong Old Street in Wulichang Street, and the countryside around Mudong Town was in sight.

? The sun moxibustion warmed me, and my uncle and I walked slowly along the dazzling rural hilly dirt road. After a long walk, we saw a hill ahead and climbed to the top slowly. I saw a small river in the ravine under the slope. There were ferries on the river, but there were no ferrymen. It was not clear until we reached the river that a steel wire rope straddled the river and both ends were fixed on the slopes on both sides. One end of the chain is fixed on the ship, and the other end passes through the wire rope through a small iron ring. People crossing the river stand on the boat and pull the wire rope back and forth by hand in turn. Of course, the wire rope does not move, and only when the boat moves can people cross the river. After the boat passes, in order to avoid the wind blowing the boat to the middle of the river when no one is around, people crossing the river will fix the boat on the shore. In this way, people on the other side of the river will have to cross the river before people on this side can cross it.

? After crossing the river, my uncle and I walked on for a long time. Over a ravine, we suddenly saw a curved paddy field. The fields not far below the hillside are dotted with farmhouses. The village where my aunt teaches is there.

? The village is really small, in a courtyard house of this farmer. Opposite the gate of the quadrangle is a dozen steps leading to the main room of the quadrangle. Aunt lives in the room on the right of the main room. The room is small, divided into three parts: inside, middle and outside. The innermost is my aunt's bedroom, and the middle aisle is next to my cousin's bedroom. My cousin was very young at that time and was fostered in a family in Mudong Street. The outermost room is also a hall with a square table and three long wooden stools against the wall. This is where we eat every day. There is no special kitchen, but there is always a coal stove made of white iron barrels in the aisle outside the hall, which is used for cooking, cooking and boiling water.

? The countryside in summer is a green world. During the day, my aunt is busy doing housework in the morning. She usually takes some picture books from the village management office and lets me sit and read them by myself. In the afternoon, I spend more time sticking dragonflies with my cousin and children of the same age in the village, or swimming, fishing and catching crabs in the river ditch.

? There is no electricity in the mountain village, so we can only use kerosene lamps for lighting at night. Kerosene lamp looks like a gourd with a thin waist and a big belly. There is a lamp holder with an open mouth and a round hole in the middle. There is a knob on one side of the lamp holder, which can adjust the entry and exit of the wick. The brightness of the lamp can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the length of the wick made of cotton sliver. Outside is a glass windshield, which can be removed at any time. Remove the glass cover, add kerosene to the bottle, light the wick with a match, and then restore the illumination of the glass cover. A family usually only has 1 or two such oil lamps. You can take them to any room where you need to do things after dark. After the oil lamp was lit, menstruation was doing his own thing seriously. My uncle plays erhu very well. After dinner, she likes to take out the erhu hanging on the wall at home and sit at the door and play his favorite songs slowly. Because it is summer, after dark, adults and children in the yard also come to the dam in twos and threes. Adults sit on bamboo chairs and shake the cattail leaf fan home, while children sleep in a big round dustpan used to dust food during the day.

? One day, my uncle and aunt and I went to Mudong Town to visit my cousin. This family lives in the middle of an old street. It is a two-story brick-wood building with a wooden threshold to prevent children from turning in and out. When we got there, my mother-in-law took my cousin to the door of the house. My uncle and aunt called my cousin's name. My cousin looked at us timidly and was silent. It is estimated that this mother-in-law family doesn't know how to train cousins except in captivity. My cousin has been stuttering and incoherent so far, and almost never takes the initiative to contact and communicate with relatives and friends. It should be caused by the growth environment during that period, and its influence is lifelong!

? After more than 40 years' absence, I revisited my hometown and came to the Mudong River again. I am looking for and identifying the old time and new inheritance of this "flood and drought wharf" along the hillside with historical solidification, in front of the ruins of the old street and between the blue bricks and green tiles. Nowadays, an antique old street about one kilometer long has been rebuilt in Mudong Wharf, but in fact, the excitement and popularity of "Wuli Long Street", "Yili Wharf" and "Xiao Ju Wu Su" which have gradually formed naturally after hundreds of years of merchants gathered here have long gone. The flowing Yangtze River still draws a big bend to the left here, and then flows eastward calmly. Only this scene can awaken my dusty wooden cave memory.