【Everyone’s Skit】Ugly Rock
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I’ve forgotten about it; I come across it from time to time and then repost it to share it. ========================= Ugly Rock by Jia Pingwa I often feel sorry for that ugly rock in front of my house: it lies there, dark and black, with an appearance similar to that of a cow； No one knows when it was left here, and no one pays any attention to it. It was just the wheat harvest time, and there was wheat piled in front of the door; grandma would always say, \"That ugly rock is such a hindrance on the ground; get it moved away soon.\" So, when my uncle’s family was building a house, they wanted to use it to construct the gable wall, but it was problematic because it was extremely irregular – it had no sharp edges or flat surfaces ； Just chisel it open; I’m too lazy to put in that much effort, since the riverbank isn’t very far away. I can just pick up any piece from there, and any of those pieces will be better than it. The roof was built and steps were laid, but my uncle still didn’t like it. One year, a stonemason came to polish a stone slab for our house. Grandma said, \"Use this ugly stone; it saves the hassle of transporting one from afar.\" The stonecutter took a look, shook his head, and rejected it as the stone was too fine.
It is not as delicate as marble, which can be carved with inscriptions and patterns, nor is it as smooth as bluestone, which can be used for washing cloth and pounding fabric； It lay there quietly, without the shade of the locust trees at the edge of the yard to protect it, and no flowers grew any longer around it. Weeds began to grow, with branches spreading upwards and downwards; gradually, moss and dark spots appeared on them. We who are children also hate it; we tried to move it away together, but we didn’t have enough strength ； Though I cursed it and despised it from time to time, there was nothing I could do, so I had no choice but to let it stay there. What offers us a slight comfort is that there is a depression of moderate size on that rock, which fills with water on rainy days. Often, three days after the rain, the ground has dried out, but there is still water in those stone depressions, so the chickens go there to quench their thirst. On every night of the 15th, we look forward to the full moon appearing; then we climb up onto it and gaze toward the horizon ； Grandma is always scolding us, worried that we might fall. Sure enough, I fell that time and scraped my knee. People call it an ugly rock, and it is indeed the most ugly rock imaginable.
One day, an astronomer came to the village. He passed by my house and suddenly noticed this stone; his gaze immediately became fixed on it. He didn’t walk away any further and stayed there ； Later, many more people came and said that it was a meteorite that had fallen from the sky two or three hundred years earlier; it was something truly remarkable. A vehicle arrived soon and carefully transported it away. This surprised us all! This strange and ugly stone turned out to be from the sky! It once filled the sky, grew hot in the heavens, and emitted light; our ancestors may have looked up at it, as it provided them with light, hope, and longing ； And it fell down, into the muddy soil and overgrown grass, lying there for hundreds of years? Grandma said, “You really can’t tell!” It’s so extraordinary, yet how is it that it can’t even build walls or steps? ” “It’s too ugly.” Astronomers say. “Really, it’s too ugly.” “But that’s precisely its beauty,” say astronomers. “It finds beauty in ugliness. ” “Find ugliness beautiful? ” “Yes, extreme ugliness is the epitome of beauty. Precisely because it is not an ordinary hard stone, it certainly cannot be used to build walls or steps, nor can it be carved or used for pounding cloth. It isn’t meant to engage in such capricious acts, which is why it often comes under ridicule from the ordinary world. ” Grandma blushed, and I blushed too. I felt my own shame, as well as the greatness of the ugly stone ； I even resent it for having endured all of this in silence for so many years? And I immediately felt deeply the greatness of its resilient, solitary existence that defies misunderstanding.
In my hometown’s garden, there is also a stone, very large and round. It is said that my grandfather and his companions dug, reaching a depth of over a meter; water started coming up, so they gave up on digging further. Every spring, when planting vegetables, soil is piled up around this stone, leaving only a very small, pointed part exposed.
Is it still leaking water? ? In this way, there is a spring
It’s just groundwater. My home is located on a hillside; in the summer, the rainwater flows away underground. My pleasure is to take an old woodworking drill and drill holes in the ground, allowing water to flow out from the surface and form a small stream. The rainy season is over, so there’s no water left. In my opinion, there should be a significant risk of mudslides.