Eternal Tranquility

On the banks of the Nulong River, there is a village called Yanshang Village. There are fifty-eight households in the village, and they can barely live and work in peace and contentment. Since the Nulong River had a once-in-a-century flood half a year ago, flooding the lower Heshang Village and Hexia Village, Yanshang Village has become the closest village to the river.

Something new happened in the village recently. Several men who lost their homes in the two villages below were actually coerced into committing robberies. However, they came back a few days ago, and they all looked haggard. A lot.

On this day, several village women who were doing laundry by the river suddenly noticed that a black shadow appeared in the distance on the river. If they looked closely, it turned out to be a swaying boat. They couldn't help but stop their work in surprise.

The Nulong River is like a dragon that gets angry all the time. The river has strong currents, high waves, and dangerous shoals. Only the most experienced boatmen cannot control it.

The last time there was a flood, the only river crossing boat nearby was overturned, and the old boatman who was punting the boat was also swept away without a trace.

Therefore, the two sides of the river have been cut off from contact for several months. Even if they want to visit relatives on the other side, they have to go hundreds of miles away.

The village women stopped doing laundry and gathered together to point and tiptoe to look out. They saw the boat moving slowly in the rapids, but very steadily, and it gradually got closer.

"Oh, what a handsome young man!"

"Hehehe, Mrs. Chunhua's eyes are very sharp. She can tell at a glance that the young man is handsome!"

"It's as if you weren't looking at that person's face, and that pair of tricks are almost clinging to him! Tsk tsk, he's so skinny, but he looks very strong. He must have more than two ounces of flesh!"

"From Huang Er's family, your Huang Er is as strong as a bear. He hasn't plowed your land yet at night."

Several village women joked with each other unscrupulously, but their eyes were fixed on the boat that was getting closer and closer. The young man holding the oar at the bow of the boat raised his head, with a simple and honest smile that was a bit shy on his handsome face.

"Yo yo yo!"

The village women all screamed, and the most aggressive Mrs. Chunhua shouted: "Young man, where did you come from, and where are you going?"

The young man smiled shyly and docked the boat: "Auntie, is this Yanshang Village?"

"Yes!" Mrs. Chunhua replied, and several village women enthusiastically stepped forward to help pull the rope and tie it to the wooden stake that was already standing on the shore.

"What are you doing in our village? Looking at your fair face, you must be a scholar from some family, right?"

"I-I'm not a scholar." The young man blushed at the sight of several village women: "I-I'm a boat operator. I heard that there are no river boats in this section of the river, so I wanted to make a living here..."

This statement surprised the village women, and they all shook their heads to express that it didn't look like it.

However, after the young man struggled to get out of the boat, everyone discovered that he was lame in one leg. He had not noticed it before sitting on the boat, but it became obvious when he walked.

The village women were surprised, but inevitably showed a look of pity with a bit of pity, and then began to inquire about the other party's origins from head to toe.

After the young man's narration, we found out that his surname is Ouyang, and his name is Zhuzi, which is very inconsistent with his appearance. He is eighteen years old, and his family has been punting for three generations. He is from Jinsha Village on the upper reaches of the Nulong River. people.

The flood half a year ago also flooded Jinsha Village. Most of the people in the village fed the Dragon Prince, and not even one out of ten survived. He was the only one left in the Zhuzhu family.

Jinsha Village naturally dispersed, and the pillars had nowhere to go. I heard that there were no punters in Yanshang Village, so I thought of coming here to make a living.

Zhuzi's eyes turned red as he spoke, and the village women also wiped away tears. They are all people who have lived by the river for generations, and they all have the same feelings.

Aunt Chunhua slapped her thigh: "Is your father's name Shuanzi, and he has been running a boat on the Qimang Mountain upstream for decades? No wonder! Seeing how well you handle the boat, it turns out to be a family tradition."

Neighbors in villages ten miles apart knew each other well, and Zhuzi was not surprised and just nodded.

However, Aunt Huang suddenly stamped her feet and said angrily: "I don't know what's going on in this world! Several generations of my ancestors were implicated in the killings between the immortal families, and they lived in fear all day long. It was easy to settle down for several years. It’s either a plague or a flood, how can we live like this!”

"Alas!"

For a time, there was a chorus of sighs. The world is difficult, and the most miserable ones are mortals like them. Without any power, they only depend on the weather. A heavy rain can kill several people.

Zhuzi looked to the left and then to the right, feeling a little at a loss.

Sister-in-law Chunhua raised her big calloused hands and patted him hard: "It's okay, it's okay! God, will you starve to death? I saw that you were very stable when you just got over. You have this skill of steering a boat." , the rivers are at your disposal! Let’s go and follow the aunts to find the village chief!”

The village women were very enthusiastic. They picked up the clothes basin and took him to the village. Things went smoothly after that, and the village chief agreed to let him dock the ferry in Yanshang Village, but he wanted to see his work first.

After all, the Nulong River is no different from those calm lakes and streams. The water flow is extremely fast, and there are sucking dark eddies under the water. No matter how long you swim, it will be useless. If the boat capsizes on the river, the lives of all the people on the boat may be at stake.

There was nothing to do in the countryside, so almost the whole village came to the river to watch the fun. Although Zhu Zhu was a little shy, he had a calm temperament, and the boat he drove was as stable as the ground, which caused the villagers to raise their thumbs, saying that they had never seen such a good boat, which made people think that they were not on the Nulong River!

Since then, Zhuzhu has been engaged in the work of ferrying people across the river. He punted the boat during the day and lived on the boat at night. The shipping charges are not expensive, just one copper coin per person, and you can also pay for supplies if you don’t have copper coins, including grain, fruits and vegetables, and wild animals.

It's just that the river is several miles wide and the water is fast. When his boat is full, it can only carry a dozen people, so he can only make two trips back and forth every day, barely making ends meet. After two years of this, several villages on both sides of the Taiwan Strait knew that he was alive and well and had never had any trouble. They were even willing to come from far away to take his ferry.

There was nothing going on on the river, so gossiping was unavoidable, so Zhuzhu sat on the bow of the boat and paddled during the day, but he knew everything about the country.

Which family has a grandchild, which family has a death, which family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law fight every day, which family's men secretly sneak into the widow's house and listen to all the stories. He even became acquainted with these villagers, and gradually some people would ask him to help him when doing weddings and weddings at home, and they would have a drink by the way.

But every time this happens, Zhuzi feels strange. Like the indifference of spectators, but also like the feeling of empathy, other people's life, old age, illness, death, joys and sorrows weighed lightly or heavily on his heart, making him often stared at the endlessly flowing river, but he couldn't tell what he was thinking.

It seems like I have thought about a lot, but also like I am not thinking about anything, such as looking at the moon in the water or looking at the flowers while drunk, everything seems to be separated by a layer of veil.

He had an inexplicable feeling that he should be sitting in the bow of the boat alone but not lonely every day, ferrying people across the river during the day, listening to all the things in the world, watching the water and listening to the waves at night, and chewing on those unexplainable emotions alone. .

A ferryman is a person who uses a boat to transport people from one shore to the other. The people on the boat met during the journey, but after the trip ended, they became passers-by in each other's lives.

But there are always unexpected times, such as people who pass away quietly in the middle of the journey, but leave their souls on the ship forever. For example, people who don’t want to reach the other side and just want to stop in the middle of the river.

Zhuzhu was concentrating on paddling, but he felt a flash of shadow in his peripheral vision. When he turned around, he saw a young woman rushing out of the cabin and jumping into the river with a look of determination!

At that moment, he didn't know where his speed came from. In the blink of an eye, he rushed over and grabbed the opponent's collar!

At this time, other people in the cabin realized what was going on and screamed.

"Jumping into the river, someone is jumping into the river!"

Most of Zhuzhu's body was dragged out of the ship. In the emergency, he used his other hand to cling to the cabin. The turbulent river water suddenly rolled up, as if it had seen prey, trying to pull him down into the river to devour him.

But he saw the girl raising her head and looking at him with eyes full of hatred and anger: "Let go! Hands!"