My grandmother's silver hair shone like pearls in the morning light, and I carefully served the cooked millet porridge to the table, and before I could put it down, I heard a crisp and piercing sound from the kitchen. The exquisite blue and white porcelain bowl was instantly scattered on the ground, and grandma's hand was tightly grasping half of the broken porcelain piece, and a layer of mist appeared in her cloudy eyes: "Ice seeds, this bowl was made by your grandfather......"

My hand hung in the air, and I didn't know what to do for a moment.

Recently, my grandmother always said that this set of bowls was fired by my grandfather before his death, but in my memory, my grandfather was clearly a railroad worker and had nothing to do with firing porcelain.

The old pocket watch on the entrance cabinet suddenly sounded, and the calm and rhythmic voice broke the silence at the moment, and the grandmother slowly let go of her hand as if awakened by this sound, and the porcelain piece in her hand fell back into the pile of debris, making a crisp sound again.

This is the third time this month that she has broken the dishes, and I can't help but feel a little worried.

"You sit, I'll clean up." I hurriedly helped my grandmother to the massage chair, trying to let her have a good rest. Her thin fingers suddenly grabbed my wrist with such force that I was a little surprised: "It's time to water the dragon's garden." ”

My heart trembled, in fact, the vegetable garden where my grandmother worked all her life had long been developed into a logistics center and no longer existed. But my grandmother's withered hands were still trembling slightly, as if she had really seen the vegetable seedlings wilting and drooping under the scorching sun, listless.

On that rainy night, thunder and explosion after explosion, and I was awakened. Suddenly, I found that my grandmother was gone. In a panic, I checked the surveillance and saw her disappear into the rain in a hurry with a cloth bag. Then I remembered that during the day she kept talking about going to build a scaffolding for the vegetable garden. The red and blue light of the police car pierced the heavy rain curtain, and I stepped on the muddy road one foot at a time, and the beam of the flashlight swept over the cold steel and concrete of the old site of the dragon horse, and suddenly I caught a glimpse of a figure curled up under the rubble.

Grandma was soaking wet, and the rain was dripping down the corners of her clothes, but she kept the cloth bag tightly in her arms. I hurried over and lifted the layers of oiled paper, revealing a bundle of wilted water spinach inside.

“你最愛吃的……”她牙齒打著顫，聲音顫抖而微弱，渾濁的眼珠裡倒映著我十二歲時的模樣。那一年暑假，我任性地賭氣說想吃現摘的菜，七十歲高齡的外婆頂著暴雨，為我送來還沾著雨珠的滿滿一筐菜。

The old pocket watch began to tell the time again in this moment of silence, and the sound was particularly clear in the empty night. Grandma suddenly said clearly: "This is your grandfather's reward for participating in the railway battle." "I suddenly remembered the yellowed photo in the album of my young grandmother standing on the platform with a pocket watch on her chest and smiling like a flower. It turned out that what she had repeatedly wiped over the years was her own glory.

During the Qingming season, we went to sweep the tombs. Grandma arranged the offerings in a neat row, and her movements were slow and solemn. "Wait for the man to move the chopsticks first." She muttered, ready to retreat into the corner. I took her cold hand and said firmly, "Now men and women are equal." Grandma looked at the photo of her grandfather on the tombstone in a daze, her eyes full of longing and memories. After a while, she suddenly shoved the largest apple into my hand, and at that moment, I seemed to see the love and expectation in her eyes.

When I was combing my grandmother's hair today, I found that she had secretly hidden a piece of osmanthus cake in the pocket of my apron. Looking at the surveillance, I realized that while I was napping, she leaned against the wall and moved to the kitchen with little difficulty, and with her trembling hands, she struggled to break the cake, leaving me with half of the dates. The morning light shines through her sparse white hair, weaving a fine gold net on the floor, and the picture of light and shadow is so beautiful that it makes people feel distressed.

The old pocket watch ticks in the silence, each sound telling a story from the past. I suddenly understood the chaotic fragments of time and space, in the labyrinth of memory, my grandmother was always looking for the best vegetable seedlings for us, hiding the sweetest snacks, and retreating the warmest places.

Once, she was the pillar of our lives, sheltering us from the wind and rain, and now, it is our turn to become her time elf, salvaging those love that has been worn down by time in the folds of memory.

During the long night of nursing, I often looked at the monitoring screen and carefully traced the outline of my grandmother when she was young. Those time amber trapped in the aging shell just need us to use patience to heat up, so that the love that has been precipitated for half a lifetime can flow again. When the morning light passed through the window, my grandmother would turn back into the old child who chased me and asked me if I was hungry, and I would hold her bark-like hand, just as she taught me to weave a grasshopper cage with wheat stalks, and weave the broken time into a warm and touching song.

[Source: Pocket Qujing]