Chapter 89 Section 4

But I once lived in the gray city of Beijing.It's full of names here.I have a grandma, a cousin, and myself, all with names.We live on a street in the East Side that also has a name.I am in a large yard on this street, and this yard also has a house number.I hate to reveal these names.However, if you don’t mention a single name, the story will be a bit incomplete——The yard where I grew up was called No. 1 Lixin Street A. In the past, there was a pair of stone lions at the gate of the yard. My cousin and I often stood between the stone lions. In and out of time──By revealing this name, you are revealing yourself.

Because I think of these things, I go back to my youth.At that time, I was tall and thin, wearing a student jacket with a stiff collar, and I always kept my hands in my trouser pockets.The knees of these blue trousers were always shiny and silvery, as if they had been varnished.In spring, my face was itchy and flakes were flying, which was peach moss.In winter, my nose is always watering: I am allergic to cold wind.I also seem to have the problem of ghost shaving—many consignment companies sell large full-length mirrors, and standing in front of it can easily expose the problem of hair loss.My cousin and I are always wandering around various consignment firms in the capital; enter through the front door, browse the shelves to look for prey, and when we find it, go to the back door of the consignment firm to find someone.Walking to the door of the back door, my cousin stopped, with a disgusted expression, handed over a handkerchief that looked like a ball of horse dung, and said: Cousin, wipe your nose—be decent, don’t embarrass me!I always feel that my snot is the cleanest thing in the world compared to his handkerchief.In fact, those liquids cannot be called snot.It's just water.

In my own story, I repaired a Rolleiflex camera. "Rolleiflex" is another name.It was a twin-lens reflex camera made in Germany and very expensive.I still can't afford a camera like this.However, I do remember this camera, which was on the shelves of a consignment firm in Xisi.The consignment shop had a darkened storefront, with shelves of electrical appliances and instruments painted in black, wrinkled paint to hide the luster of the metal—in general, it was a dark age.As Nabokov said, this is a purely black and white story. My cousin and I used to go to that Rolleiflex camera and ask the salesperson to "take it down and take a look".People said: Don't look at it, you can't afford it anyway; there is contempt in the tone.It's like proof that we don't own the camera.However, the next scene was: My cousin and I appeared in the small alley near the commissioning bank.This alley is called Zhuanta Alley. There is a nunnery at the entrance of the alley. There is a striking brick pagoda in the nunnery. It must be two or three stories high. The two of us were talking to an old man in the alley. It was winter and the sky was dark. It's the time before dinner.The alley was dark and transparent from beginning to end; gray houses lined both sides.This person is the salesperson of the entrusting bank, with a big head, a big buttocks, and a white beard on his face, which is somewhat similar to our leader.It took me a lot of effort not to remember the man's name - and I succeeded.But I also know that this person's name, at least I remember his surname—this person's surname is Zhao.We call him Master Zhao.Calling "Master" was a grand title back then, because the working class was leading everything...

My cousin suggested to the venerable old man that if anyone came to ask about this Rolleiflex camera, he should say that it had all sorts of problems; more significant.All in all, he wants to make this camera unsalable; then lower the price and sell it to us.My cousin's intentions are so sinister.After finishing this matter, we walked across the road together.There is a restaurant there called "Sha Guo Ju"... The famous dish here is casserole three whites, and fried deer tail... These names are connected with the following facts: after my grandma passed away, my cousin and I relied on meager People living on pensions and without a housekeeper, living very hard, live by this trick: buy bad stuff at the junkyard and sell it for a markup.It takes a profiteer's mind and a repairman's hand to do such a thing.These two things grew on my cousin and me respectively.From the bottom of my heart, I don't like this kind of thing, so the name "Rolleiflex" made me hesitate.