Firmament

Won't stay in space forever.

- Xibe proverb

In the 20th century, the world changed dramatically. The old empire is in decline. New powers are emerging. The old and new empires fought fiercely for interests and hegemony.

These drastic changes that are taking place outside have little effect on the remote, isolated and conservative mountains of Dongxiang, as if they were happening in another world. Dongxiang is still like a broken car pulled by an old ox, like a mentally ill patient on the back of a thin donkey, marching in time and space in the 20th century according to his slow rhythm that has not changed for a hundred years. The desolate mountain village is like a dreary and silent backwater, and it is like a simple and poor paradise.

According to the customs of the Salta people, boys are subjected to the ritual of sunnai (sarta, circumcision) before they reach the age of 12. Sun Nai is an indispensable and important ritual in the life of a man of Salta. After the Sun Nai ceremony is held, it means that the person who receives the ceremony has entered the ranks of adults, must assume social responsibility and family responsibilities, and it also means that they will soon marry their relatives.

In the summer of that year, Niu Ersa and Mai Liyan held a simple and warm ceremony for their eldest son, Ibrahim, to announce to the villagers that there was another adult in the family.

Ibrahim stood straight in front of the crowd, with a solemn expression on his face, as if he was accepting a great task. Thick black eyebrows, bright eyes, slender eyelashes, fine beads of sweat oozing from the high bridge of the nose, red lips. His skin was covered with a faint layer of black ink due to the intense ultraviolet rays of the plateau.

Since then, Ibrahim has paid special attention to his words and deeds, strictly regulated himself with the standards of an adult everywhere, deliberately imitated the tone of Ada and Grandma to speak to his younger siblings, and his attitude towards them has become more gentle.

One evening, an eerie black cloud drifted across the western sky, domineering to block the last rays of the sun. Approaching the sky above the Dongxiang Mountains, the thick and heavy black cloud suddenly began to roll up and down violently, and then quickly rolled left and right. The black clouds continued to expand and expand, violently expanding and dispersing in all directions, covering the entire sky of Dongxiang in an instant.

The mountain people have not yet recovered from their panic. A large hole was suddenly torn in the middle of the iron-gray sky. Raindrops the size of broad beans crackled and fell. The rain poured down, like a wild beast galloping and roaring, mercilessly pounced on the mountain beam, carrying the loess mud soup to the bottom of the ravine.

Only then did people understand that Dongxiang, which had been in drought for nine years in ten years, had encountered a storm that had not been encountered in decades.

The soil of the loess slope itself is relatively loose, and there is no solid root system of trees, weeds and other plants, and many cracks appear under the heavy rain, causing mudslides and landslides like landslides and ground cracks.

Just as the men's wails began one after another, the storm suddenly stopped, as if a wild beast had indulged in its wrath and quietly walked away with a full body of weariness.

The shocking flash flood swept Jiaozigou into a mess of ruins in an instant. Some families were lucky that their houses did not collapse, but were filled with muddy water. Some homes were miserable, the roof collapsed, and only a few sections of ruins remained. Some people were directly washed to the bottom of the ditch by the mudslide and fell to pieces. Mudslides buried palm-sized fields of crops deep into the ground.

Many people in the mountains have lost their homes, their fields, their food and clothing, and their homes, albeit simple, that they depend on for survival.

The village of the Niu Ersa family was split in half by a mudslide. Half stood alone on the cliff, the other half carried by mudslides into a ravine a mile away.

Niu Ersa stood in the ruined home, holding the third son in his right hand and the second son in his left hand. Mai Liyan held the young fourth son in her right hand, and carried a black cloth bag in her left hand. Ibrahim carried half a sack of wheat on his small shoulders and a cast iron pot in his hand.

The

mosque on the opposite hillside was gone. On the ground is a new layer of loess. As they looked down the hillside, they saw rubble and bricks, as well as models in the shape of stars and moons.

Niu Ersa stood in the muddy water of the loess, not knowing how to live his life in the future.

Ibrahim raised his head resolutely and said to the frowning Niu Ersa: "Ada, Jiaozigou can't stay any longer. Shall we just move somewhere else?".

Mai Liyan wiped the tears of the fourth son with a burden, and said in a choked voice: "Except for Jiaozigou, we can still go to Ali! There is no place in the world for us to live." "

Ibrahim hurriedly reminded: "Last time, Mahasan Dad said that Saigo is much better than our Dongxiang. "

Niu Isa immediately said, "Yes. If it really doesn't work, let's just move to Saigo and live. "

Ibrahim asked, "Ada, will we move out at any time?"

Nursa replied, "The sooner the better." If not, let's leave tomorrow. "

Ibrahim said: "If you move out tomorrow, don't forget the Samarkand pebbles that Grandpa explained." I see it's still hanging on the beams. "

Niu Ersa said, "Good. I'll go up and take it down now. "

Mai Liyan told with concern: "Be careful. "

Niu Elsa put down the child he was holding in his arms, turned and entered the house with only half of the walls left, stood on the top of the collapsed wall, untied a small bag of red cloth from the girder, and stuffed it into the pocket of his shirt.

Nursa settled Maileyam and the child into a house that had not collapsed, and then took Ibrahim to the ridge of the mountain to inspect the damage. They went door-to-door to do work for the villagers, mobilizing everyone to live together in other places.

Most of the villagers expressed reluctance to leave their homeland. Eventually, the nine families agreed to relocate to Saigo with Niuersa.

The next morning, a piece of fish belly white had just emerged from the sky. With tears of reluctance, Niu Ersa's family and the other 9 families bid farewell to the ruins and broken walls, bid farewell to the Jiaozigou that they love and hate, help the old and the young, and staggered along the bottom of the ditch to the outside of the mountain.

The villagers who decided to stay are repairing the damaged village. They looked at the backs of Niu Ersa and the others with wooden expressions, not knowing whether a blessing or a curse awaited them.

An elder with a hunched spine exerted all his strength and said, "Ersazi, if you don't have a good time outside, you should go back to Jiaozigou!"

Niursa turned around and nodded gratefully to the elder.

Ibrahim said coldly: "No matter how hard and tired I am, I don't want to come back here!".

Niu Ersa took more than 60 people from 10 households on a journey and rested for an hour, so that the frail elderly and children could rest fully and wait until they had recovered their strength before continuing to walk. It wasn't until evening that they walked out of the mountainous Dongxiang Plateau.