The Last Mother's Love

Dainius was working in the city when he fell and hurt his leg, leaving him disabled. He couldn't find a suitable job for a while, plus he hadn't been back home for several years, so he had the idea of going back home to see his mother.

　　Who knows, when he arrived home, he heard that his mother was seriously ill, was in the late stage of esophageal cancer, and was living in the county hospital. Dainius rushed to the hospital, and his mother was already so thin and bony from the disease. As soon as she saw her son come back, she immediately became happy, but complained: "Son, what are you doing back? Mom is fine." Seeing that her son was walking with a limp, she asked heartily, "Son, what happened to your leg? Why are you so thin?"

　　Dainius's heart was sore and he couldn't help but cry and tell the story of his broken leg. The mother looked at Dainiu heartily and said, "Son, I can't see this disease anyway, let's leave the hospital tomorrow and go home. While I can still move, I'll cook for you for a few days and take good care of your body."

　　Da Niu could not resist his mother, so he let her out of the hospital and took her home by bicycle. When he arrived at the village, Dainiu saw a new grave by the roadside, and he casually asked, "Whose grave is this?" Mother said, "This is the grave of our village Li Bumpy, who died two months ago. When he was buried, he could ......" mother said here, suddenly stopped talking. Dainius thought that maybe this topic caused his mother's sorrow, and in his heart, he cursed himself for being an asshole.

　　Soon, the mother and son returned home. Despite her terminal illness, her mother insisted on cleaning the house and winding up the old wall clock, giving the house a warm atmosphere. But within a few days, my mother's illness worsened rapidly, and soon she could not eat anything.

　　That day, my mother called Dainiu to the bedside and asked, "Son, the shack in the field of responsibility to the east of our house, do you remember?" Dainius nodded and said, "Yes, I remember. It was built by father when he was alive to watch the melons." Mother said, "Your father was a mute man, I have lived with him for decades, he did not say more than a basket of words to me. I want to go to the hut to see and talk to your father."

　　Da Niu listened, and with red eyes helped his mother to the dilapidated shack. Mother lay on the hay on the ground and said, "Da Niu, your father loved to eat the scallion cakes I made. You go home to bring the oil pot and then bring some flour and water, the small briquette stove, the small iron pot, and the basin for mixing the flour all bring. I want to cook a few more scallion cakes for your father."

　　Da Niu knew that this was his mother's last wish. He made two trips back and forth to get all the things his mother wanted. The mother struggled to cook the scallion pancakes, cooked one, and let Dainiu try it first. Dainius took a bite with tears in his eyes. Mother asked, "Is it good?" Da Niu said it was good. Mother laughed and said, "Your great aunt in the back of the mountain also loves to eat scallion pancakes. This one in the pot is also ready. You should send it to your great aunt, so she can also try it. These days, thanks to her to take care of me." Dainius couldn't bear to leave his mother but didn't want to let her wish to go unfulfilled, so he took the scallion cake and went to his great aunt's house.

　　When he arrived at his aunt's house, Dainiu told her of his mother's critical condition, and she hurried back with Dainius. Just halfway, the great aunt suddenly stopped and pointed ahead, and said, "Look! Is that smoke coming from over there?" Dainius fixed his eyes, and could not help but cry out in alarm: "Oh no, it seems to be the location of the shack in the smoke!" The two men hurriedly ran to the place where the smoke was coming from.

　　The mountain road was rugged, and by the time they arrived, the shack had already burned to ashes. The neighbors and police who came to hear about it picked the body of Daniu's mother out of the ashes, but unfortunately, it was already burnt, and the scene was very miserable.

　　How could a fire break out in a nice shack? The police carefully surveyed the scene and determined that the mother of the bull poured oil in the oil pot on her body, lying on the hay in the shack, and set fire to herself. As for the reason for self-immolation, the police speculated that she could not bear the torture of illness, so she sought to kill herself.

　　Da Niu's grief, always feels that the mother's suicide is a bit wrong. Mother has always been optimistic, why choose this painful and tragic way of self-immolation? He thought hard, but could not find a suitable reason to explain. He and his great aunt had to make arrangements for his mother's funeral.

　　The village has always been simple people, who have a wedding or funeral event, the villagers will come uninvited to help. On the day of the funeral, it is surprising that only a dozen or so middle-aged and elderly men came, seemingly cold and quiet.

　　Zhang Erzhu hunched over and counted the number of people and said, "These are the only people who will wait any longer. Da Niu ah, these years, the young people have gone out to work, our village is left with these old and weak men. Without a few strong laborers, I'm afraid I can not lift the coffin. When burying Li Banji, the three villages only got together two classes of coffin bearers. I think you also need to go to other villages to hire some people."

　　It turns out that the local custom is if you need to ask people from outside the village to help with the funeral, the mourners must personally kowtow to the door, one can not call, and two can not let others work for them. But the mountainous areas are not easy to get to the neighboring villages, you have to walk on the rugged mountain roads for most of the day, and the legs of the big cattle and foot inconvenience, so hire a full coffin bearer to spend much time ah.

At this point, Master Li spoke: "Old man Zhang, you should not be difficult for the big cattle. You said the problem, I have also considered. But this time, we don't have to worry about lifting the coffin, the sister-in-law's body is burnt, certainly not as heavy as the coffin of Li Banshi. We old brothers in two shifts, gritting our teeth on it."

　　Hearing this, Da Niu gratefully glanced at Grand Master Li. The first son of the mourning family has to lift the corner of the coffin and hand it to the helper, according to the custom of the village. The first thing you need to do is to get the coffin out of the way.

　　When the time came for the funeral, Dainiu swept a glance at the family wall clock. Through the glass in front of the pendulum, he vaguely saw a piece of paper inside. Dainius was curious to open the door of the clock and took out the paper, only to see a distorted line written on it: Mom will not be a burden to you. The date on it was the very day that his mother set herself on fire in the shack.

　　At once, everything was clear to Da Niu. Mother must have known that there were not many days left, pitying his leg injury, afraid that he could not lift the coffin, but also afraid that he was kowtowing around to ask the coffin bearer and difficult, so the idea of their own to "cremation". The mother's choice is undoubtedly the best way to reduce the weight of the coffin. No wonder that day, when passing by the grave of Li Banshi, my mother was hesitant to say anything. Now it seems that from then on, the mother had the idea of self-immolation in mind.