Time has passed, forty years since I left home. I have traveled across the Qi Lu Plain, drifted across the South and the Capital. Forty-plus Chinese New Years' have been spent away from home, mostly in foreign lands. During these times, I only returned a few times, either for a short visit of ten days or a few days, filled with nostalgia for my hometown and the yearning for the countryside.
Now, having retired from military service, I've returned home with my wife, chasing my childhood dreams, letting go of my hometown's nostalgia, and returning my mind and soul to my native land. Home, my hometown's countryside, you've finally returned! The hometown's countryside, with its developed waterways, is blessed with a unique advantage. There's the East River, the South River, the West River, and the Zhao Wang River, all encircling the countryside. Two major roads, one running east-west and the other north-south, intersect in a cross shape through the countryside. Looking from a high vantage point, the hometown's countryside appears as a bold '' (field) character. My village is roughly at the center of this '' character.
I once wondered if ancestors saw the dwellings of our family and invented this '' (field) character! The air in the hometown's countryside is fresh. Walking along the countryside's small paths, you don't smell the exhaust fumes from city cars, or the acrid smell of asphalt roads baking in the sun, nor the foul odor from (manhole cover) releasing noxious fumes.
Instead, you smell the fragrance of the brown-yellow soil, a lingering aroma of the homeland. Tasting it carefully, this scent is like a fine vintage wine, released after years of aging; it's like the aroma of freshly cooked sweet potatoes; it's like the fragrance of a mother's embrace, emanating from her warm clothing. This fragrance, inhaled, thought about, and inhaled again, I suddenly felt lost and mesmerized!
In the past, we mocked those who said the moon in China was brighter than the moon in America, but I dare to say, the moonlight in the hometown's countryside is indeed brighter, bright enough to see the mountain shadows of the Moon Palace, Yuegu (Jade Rabbit), Chang'e (Moon Goddess), and Yuegu (Jade Rabbit). How many Mid-Autumn Festival nights have I spent in the city, longing to see the Moon Palace like this, but my eyes ached from staring for too long, all I saw were gray and dark, hazy and blurry moonlight. That night, walking alone on the countryside's small path, the moon was high in the sky, with countless stars and the Milky Way flowing across; below, flowers and grasses were everywhere, young wheat plants were green, willow trees were graceful, as if extraterrestrial guests were drifting into the sky, both celestial and earthly, dreamlike and illusory.
In front of the gate of the hometown's countryside small courtyard, I don't know what year my father planted the two cherry blossom trees, thick as a bowl, with a crown like a torch. When cherry blossoms are in full bloom in March, a tree full of pink cherry blossoms, resembling two graceful and enthusiastic reception ladies, welcoming my comings and goings; Inside the courtyard, along the east wall, the apricot blossoms have already bloomed, looking out, each apricot blossom is like a pink butterfly fluttering its wings, several buds are still in bloom, like shy girls, revealing fluffy pink petals. The apricot tree has grown tall, half of the apricot blossoms are blooming inside the wall, the other half is blooming outside, this cannot help but make me think of the words of the poet Ye Shaowen: 'Spring colors fill the garden, can't be contained, one red apricot blooms out of the wall.'
One spring night, like silk, like cotton, like silk, like satin, drops fell, silently nourishing the plants. In the morning, I pushed open the window, a single peach blossom peeked in, like a humble maid, asking the sleepy owner if he had rested well, in the haze, I seemed to have wandered into the Peach Blossom Source. The hometown's small river water is clear, just like my memory, clear enough to see the scales of small fish and the whiskers of small shrimp, clear enough to see the different colors of sand grains and the patterns of pebbles. Standing by the clear river, I bent down and drank a few mouthfuls, although it was a little cold, it was still as sweet as my childhood memories.
In a flash, I've returned to my hometown for three months, every morning I open the door, either someone's homegrown vegetables or homemade eggs or duck eggs are waiting for me; before Chinese New Year, uncles, aunts and neighbors sent me baskets of steamed buns, yellow dumplings, bean-paste buns, and so on. Whenever I see these, my heart is filled with warmth and gratitude, difficult to express, are these vegetables, eggs and grains? They are none other than the warm feelings of hometown and family!
Life is hard to let go of hometown and family; hometown and family are priceless! Home, my hometown's countryside, you've finally returned!
