Chapter 8 Hefei, the City of Tongyin

A place that cannot be reached is called a distant place, and a place that cannot be returned is called a hometown. I forgot who said it, it is so meaningful. Many years after leaving Hefei, when I recall this city, I always think of the luxuriant sycamores on the Yangtze River Road. I was still the kid in high school, riding a bicycle in the late autumn season among the circling and falling, withered leaves. The branches of the trees on the side stretched out like giant arms, criss-crossing above my head, and the grand shade of Tongtong covered the whole city. I was living in this city at that time, like a baby bird perched in a nest made of tree trunks and hay.

I have lived in Hefei for 18 years, I was born there. The family lives by the Fei River, and "Hefei" got its name from the confluence of the Fei River there. Hefei is a small city with only one main road called "Yangtze River Road". I only remember three buses - No. 1, No. 3 and No. 11.Later, when I set foot on the boundary of Beijing, I found that there were more than 300 buses at the gate of Peking University. I was very shocked. I thought that the number of buses could be more than 300, which shows how huge the city is. Life in a big city is great, but it often makes you feel like a passer-by. Today, I bought a house in Beijing and built a company. When the driver drives through the streets and alleys of Beijing, I still often point to strangers outside. The building asks, where is that?

Small cities are different. In that small city of Hefei, my life was also very small.There I have a few good brothers, who hang around the game hall every day after school to play "Famous Generals" and "Three Kingdoms: Swallowing the World". During the seasons, I would chip in to eat a bowl of hot wontons in a small shop, and then ride home together. We raced under the shade of Tong in the east section of Changjiang Road, talking loudly, feeling like the master is dominating here. In the summer of the college entrance examination, I estimated my score in the college entrance examination, which was much higher than my expectation, so I faced two choices, University of Science and Technology of China or Peking University.The benefits of the former are obvious. Hefei is my hometown. I have food and shelter when I study at home, and I don’t have to wash my clothes. The University of Science and Technology of China was famous for its high rate of going abroad. I often catch grasshoppers on campus to play.For me, Peking University is a completely unknown place, beautiful and mysterious.

I hesitated for a long time before this choice that determined my life.In the end, the night before filling out my application form, I decided to use lottery to determine my own fate. The first time I caught Peking University, I hesitated a bit, and decided to try again, and the second time I caught HKUST, one to one tie... Is there really a general saying of "drawing a tie" in lottery?For the third time, I gritted my teeth and stretched out my claws, and it was Peking University again. So I believed that this was my own guidance. Early the next morning, I wrote Peking University on the first column of the volunteer form, and with that piece of paper in my schoolbag, I flew my bicycle through the summer sunshine. Tongyin, go to school and hand in the form.

I've always been a little weak when making major decisions, drawing lots because I'm not sure I can hold fate in my hands. In retrospect, before the lottery, I had already slanted towards Peking University. I told people that I made this choice because Li Yannian sang "there are beautiful women in the north", and it was just a joke to fantasize about Yingying and Yanyan on the campus of Peking University. , the real reason is that I don't know there, so I want to check it out. Later, when I encountered a choice between the two, I often chose the one I didn't understand. I don't know if I can praise myself for my pioneering spirit.

Another reason is that I really want to get out of the house.When I was still young, I still had a breath flowing through my veins, and when I went to the gym and always wanted to challenge the heaviest dumbbell, I always longed for a wider sky. I forget where I came from the psychological analysis, saying that a person’s life is determined by his experience before the age of thirteen. I have lived in Hefei for eighteen years, so I was a citizen who grew up in a small city and had no chance to become a nobleman.After leaving Hefei, I went all the way north. After studying at Peking University for four years, I went to St.Louis at a higher latitude to study for a doctorate. It can be said that I have traveled a lot.When I was in Hefei, some people told me that Beijing is good. Later, when I went to Peking University, some people told me that the United States is good.Ten years after leaving Hefei, I returned to Shanghai from the United States, walked out of Pudong Airport with all my luggage, and faced the hustle and bustle of the city, I still felt like a countryman entering the city.

In people's impression, country people always want to go to the city.But why do country people go to the city? Maybe it's not for a better life, but everyone will get tired of the city in front of them, want to go out and have a look, and then can't look back. Teacher Wang Jiawei borrowed Ouyang Feng's words in Dongxiexidu, "Over the mountain, nothing more than Still a mountain." Many years ago, I wrote "Peking University" on my college entrance examination volunteer, not because of how good Peking University was in my impression, but because I was tired of living in a small city for 18 years.

Now Hefei has become quite large, surrounded by various new districts, and you can see all kinds of luxury imported cars on the street. It is not the small town in the past where you can go almost anywhere with a taxi fee of only five yuan. . I am a little uncomfortable with the new Hefei. The Hefei I am familiar with is a slow, underdeveloped small city, where my brothers live, and the Yangtze River Road under the shade of Tong, the arcade hall and billiard room, I ride a bicycle, along the fixed route, day after day through the Eastern District. There are no amusement parks in small cities, and everyone will find fun by themselves, such as training themselves to become Xiao Li Feidao.

I walk home after school every day. On both sides of the long street are uncles whose scientific name is "Platanus" and we call them "French sycamore". I have walked that unchanging road for many years.The big trees on both sides cover the whole street with their outstretched branches, like a long green shed, with huge palm-shaped leaves to shade and shelter from the sun and rain.When the leaves fall, huge leaves fall from the sky, like a heavy yellow snow, with a feeling of falling from the sky. I have invented countless ways to pass the time of walking, the most important thing is to practice throwing knives hard.

I bought a pencil sharpener from the school store, sharpened it on the cement curb, and swished the knife at tree trunks along the road without stopping.I imagined that this kind of hard training day after day would make my sword skills great, and one day I would point and hit where I could point a hundred steps away. Unfortunately, my magical skills were not perfected, and the sycamore tree was very injured. Years later when I studied mechanics, I realized that my pencil sharpener from the school store only had a 50% chance of hitting a tree trunk even in the hands of Xiao Li, and it lacked the counterweight that a good throwing knife should have. .So although it has a heart to be a good flying knife to fight for justice, the most important thing is that it can only deal with pens.

So I'm actually a pencil sharpener too. I occasionally go home to visit my parents. My parents live in a new building. It’s quiet late at night. We sit on the sofa watching TV and chatting. Do well, everything must be planned in advance, can you take care of your life like this?I retorted that I am very busy, I am very tired, I have to do the work of several people by myself, and I have such and such troubles.My father said that you want to buy another big house in Beijing, preferably with six bedrooms and two living rooms. I complained that the housing prices in Beijing are very high. Buy a house with six bedrooms and two living rooms in a good location?Dad, what do you think I am doing?We quarreled while we were talking, and we were not very happy with each other, so we all fell silent and watched the figures flickering on the screen. "If you're so tired, why don't you come back!" Mom suddenly said, "Come back and take the civil servant exam. Your ability is fine, and the salary is good, but it's just a little less money." "Mom, are you kidding me?" I said. We went on silent. I really can’t go back to the city in my memory. As far as my city is gone, Hefei has changed a lot in these years. Those phoenix trees have been felled, and my old house by the Fei River It was demolished. In the past, the tallest building in Hefei was called the "ten-story building". Everyone wanted to go to the ten-story building to take the elevator. Now the gray exterior wall of the building looks so dilapidated and shabby under the surrounding glass curtain walls. All the delicious breakfast shops in the city are being reorganized. My buddies are getting married. When I get together with them, I often have nothing to say. My parents are getting old, and they will get older. And will sleep and wake up refreshed. It is difficult for me to determine whether I have changed or Hefei has changed. Maybe both of them are changing, silently moving away. The sentence quoted at the beginning comes from "Mudanjiang" by "Nanquan Mama". I saw it in a stranger's forum signature file, and I recorded it here: When I left that city, I guessed about my future.I guessed the ending right. I will never be able to return to the shade of the grand sycamore tree. Those sycamore trees that left the marks of my knife have grown up and been felled again. Those palm shapes in the sound of the chainsaw The leaves and branches of the tree fell together in the dust, and the city of Tongyin collapsed. Once when I went home, I walked on the newly built Feihe embankment in the dark, and wanted to take the girl I liked to see the city where I used to live.Find a map, draw a red line, point various markers, and tell him that I pass along this route on a bicycle every day.There is a famous wonton shop called "Fei Lai Xian", which is my favorite tofu stall.Just opposite Mingjiao Temple, here is the embankment of the Fei River. I used to climb up the 20-meter-high embankment with bare hands like a gecko without any protection. There is a piece of low-rise and dilapidated buildings there where I lived when I was a child. Lying on the concrete table, writing homework, waiting for my parents to come home from get off work. In 1984, a torrential rain caused floods in the Fei River. The first floor of my house was completely submerged, and people escaped by rowing a cruise ship in Xiaoyaojin... In this small city, I used to be fascinated by the outside world, but now I am a little tired, and I remember how good it is. But even though I miss it over and over again, I can't go back.