Mountain boy picks stars

1

Whenever he missed his mother, the poor mountain boy, Shanwa, would wait until dark before going home when he went up the mountain to herd cattle.

He still often sits on that oval-shaped brown rock on the hilltop at the entrance of the village, listening to the roaring Yellow River flowing down from the foot of the mountain, and looking up at the twinkling stars in the sky.

In her heart, she imagined that her mother was the brightest and largest star in the sky, and that she must be thinking of her from heaven.

Who knows, one day, Mom will float down from the sky like Chang'e in the myth and return to my side.

Shanwa often recalls the night he went up the mountain with his mother to dig sweet potatoes and return home. The mother and son carried heavy bamboo baskets full of sweet potatoes and made their way up the mountain in the dark.

The mother and son were tired from walking, so they reached the top of the hill at the entrance of the village and sat down to rest on the oval-shaped brown rock.

Shanwa looked up at the twinkling stars in the sky and asked his mother with great curiosity:

"Mommy, will the stars fall from the sky?"

Mom: "The star is too high, it won't fall down!"

Shanwa: "Mommy, if I throw a stone into the sky, it falls down. Why don't the stars fall down?"

Mom: "The elders say that for every star in the sky, there's a person on earth. Every star in the sky corresponds to a person on earth. Therefore, the stars in the sky will never fall down."

Shanwa: "Mom, two years ago I saw a star streak across the night sky and then disappear. Did it fall down?"

Mom: "That's a shooting star. The person on earth who corresponds to it dies, and that's when the corresponding star in the sky becomes a shooting star and disappears."

Huang Xiaoxing blinked her big eyes, which were already brimming with tears.

I'm terrified that the "Mom Star" in the sky will fall down and I'll never have a mother again.

He gazed at his mother for a long time, trying hard not to let his tears fall.

Shanwa: "Mom, I want to pluck the star that corresponds to you in the sky and give it to you. Then I'll take it home and hang it on the tall tree in our yard. The 'Mom Star' will shine brightly on the tall tree every night, and Mom will never die."

The mother stroked her son's head tenderly, tears welling in her eyes, and hugged her son Xiaoxing tightly in her arms, her eyes glistening with emotion.

Mom: "The stars in the sky are too high up; people can't fly up there and pluck them down."

Huang Xiaoxing: "Mom, I'm still little now. When I grow up, I'll grow wings like a bird and fly up to pick stars!"

Mom: "Maybe. You need to eat more now so you can grow taller. You also need to study more so you can leave the mountains. When you grow up and have skills, maybe you can fly up to the sky and pick stars."

Shanwa: "Mommy, I don't want that Mother Star to fall from the sky. When I grow up, I'll become capable enough to fly up to the sky and pluck Mother Star down, so I can be with Mommy forever..."

Nestled in his mother's arms, Shanwa couldn't help but shed tears for the hardships his mother had endured to raise him, and he was even more afraid of losing his mother.

From that time on, he secretly harbored a dream: when he grew up, he would fly up to the sky and bring down the "Mom Star" for his mother.

That way, Mom will never die again, and she will never leave me.

2

However, her mother went out to work and never came back.

Whenever Huang Xiaoxing, a poor child from a mountain village, misses his mother, he often goes alone to the top of the mountain at the edge of the village at night and sits on the oval-shaped brown rock.

While listening to the roaring waves of the Yellow River flowing thousands of miles away, I looked up at the night sky and searched among the twinkling stars for the "Mother Star" that corresponds to my mother.

Shanwa dreamed time and again that he could fly to the moon like Chang'e in the story his mother told him when he was little. He imagined climbing up the crescent moon from the bottom of the moon boat and picking the "Mother Star" that represented his mother in the sky.

Then, Mom will naturally come back.

However, for the poor children in the mountain village, such dreams of "reaching for the stars" could only be realized in their dreams time and time again, leaving them with only tears on their pillows when they woke up. Their village was a scattered natural mountain village with only a few households and no school.

During the day, he would carry a heavy, coarse cloth satchel containing steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and cooked sweet potatoes for lunch, cross two towering mountains, and wade through two rushing mountain streams to attend primary school in a large village far from his home.

This seemingly unremarkable floral-patterned coarse cloth schoolbag was hand-sewn by his mother under the dim light of a kerosene lamp in their cave dwelling, while she accompanied him as he did his homework and read. Therefore, Shanwa cherishes it all the more.

Every afternoon after school, on the way up and down the mountain, Shanwa would pick wild fruits and gather pig feed so he could help his grandparents feed the chickens and pigs when he got home.

At the same time, on their way home from school, they would also stop by the nearby gully and bring back the two old cows with cowbells hanging from them, which were grazing there. They would then take the cows to the cowshed cave to spend the night, in order to prevent their own cows from being lost or stolen.

Although the poor children in the mountain village have to climb two mountains and wade through two streams every day to get to school, they still have to work hard and get home, which is always very hard and tiring, and they often don't get home until dark.

However, when he carried a floral-patterned coarse cloth schoolbag sewn by his mother on one shoulder, filled with the ideals and hopes of a mountain boy to break free from the mountains and fly to the sky to pick stars, and a heavy bamboo basket on his other shoulder, filled with wild fruits and grasses to feed chickens and pigs.

Holding the long rope tethered to the cow's nose in one hand, listening to the cowbells hanging around the cow's neck jingling all the way, I walked home along the mountain path by the faint light of the experiment.

Every now and then I would look up at the twinkling stars in the sky and think to myself that the biggest and brightest "Mom Star" must be watching me from above.

4

Therefore, during their time studying in the mountain village, the young children were exceptionally sensible and understanding of the hardships their parents faced in farming and working to support their education.

Therefore, Huang Xiaoxing always listened attentively and took notes in class, did his homework neatly, and studied hard in his spare time, reading all the extracurricular books in the school's small library.

The dazzling and enchanting world of neon lights in the big cities beyond the mountains, as depicted in his extracurricular books, along with the UFOs, aliens, and the little smart phone's journey to the future in science fiction, often stirred his restless heart, inspiring him to fly out of the towering mountains, across the surging Yellow River, and towards that dreamlike and beautiful world.

After returning home from school, Shanwa would do his best to help his grandparents with farm work.

Even though he was separated from his mother and couldn't find her, he always thought he must study hard and work hard. He couldn't let the "Mom Star" in the sky see her lovely son on earth being disappointed because he skipped school and was lazy.

On weekends and holidays, Shanwa would always go up the mountain with his grandparents to plant, hoe, and weed.

During the summer harvest season, we go up the mountain to cut wheat and pick wild apricots.

During the autumn harvest season, people go to the fields to pick corn, dig potatoes, and dig sweet potatoes.

In winter, when heavy snow blocked the mountains, I would go up the mountain with my grandfather to drive away wild boars and catch wild rabbits.

She also washed clothes with her grandmother in the mountain stream, wading in the middle of the stream to help her grandmother rinse the clothes.

While his grandmother was busy pounding clothes with a mallet, he lifted up a large rock in the mountain stream, caught a bunch of small crabs crawling around at the bottom of the water, tied them into strings with straw rope, and took them home.

Grandparents felt sorry for their grandson who had lost his mother, so they wouldn't let him do the heavy farm work that adults did, and only let him do light work like herding cattle.

When Shanwa went up the mountain to herd cattle, he never forgot to take the books that his father had bought for him when he came home from working on a construction site in the city. He would study diligently in the gaps when the cattle were busy eating grass and not running around.

He often immerses himself in the wonderful world beyond the mountains depicted in his books, especially the science fiction world where humans can fly.

Sitting on a large, oval, brown rock on a hilltop by the Yellow River, one can gaze at the azure sky during the day, following the occasional passing airplane until it becomes a tiny black dot and disappears into the vast clouds.

At night, after the cattle have grazed their fill, Shanwa will still stand on the hilltop, gazing at the stars in the sky, dreaming about the future, lost in thought for a long time.

Only when the cowbells hanging around the cow's neck began to jingle did he remember that he needed to drive the cow home.

Thus, the reins on the mindset of gazing at the stars are put away, and the whip in hand is used to drive the cattle home.

When he returned, Shanwa never forgot to gather another large bundle of firewood. As darkness fell, he would drive the oxen and carry the bundle of firewood home.

Because people in the mountains use earthen stoves to cook, they need to burn a lot of firewood every day. The adults often go out to work to make a living, and trivial "little things" such as going up the mountain to collect firewood, dig wild vegetables, and cut pig feed are often compulsory courses for the children in the mountains.