Chapter 62 Section 12

At ten o'clock in the morning, I arrived in the suburbs, and the stone house beside the river was solemn and quiet.I went back and forth twice, but couldn't find the second master's residence.The road under my feet led me to go higher and higher, and when I looked up, I saw a steep mountain. There are large depressions in the mountain, like a dog chewing on them, which is the result of digging stones to refine cement.In the distance is a huge chimney, wide at both ends and thin in the middle, like a woman's body, emitting thick white smoke, marking the location of the cement factory.

Human behaviors that destroy nature are often on a grand scale and have a special sense of beauty.I fell into the painting state until I was woken up by the sound of women arguing. A fat old woman in a red vest was reprimanding her daughter-in-law. I walked up and said, "Ask someone." After describing the appearance of the second master in detail, the old woman crossed her two arms like oil barrels on her chest, thinking hard, her eyes Yiliang asked, "Are you talking about old man Li?" She said that what I described was old man Li more than ten years ago.She sighed with emotion: "Old people can't be dirty, they will die if they are dirty, but old man Li has been dirty for more than ten years, and he hasn't died yet." She obviously had a good impression of the second master and led me to his door.The iron sheet that wraps the wooden door is made up of several pieces, and over the past ten years, it has become uneven and deformed.Knock on the door, no one.

The old woman took me to ask the chess player at the intersection. The chess player said, "Is it a big lobster?" It’s over.” We went downhill and came to the street. The old woman said that the people here are rough, and only Old Man Li has a cultural temperament. She dared not get close to Old Man Li. Five years ago, she said to Old Man Li: “You alone How much money does the month have?" Old man Li smiled politely, then turned his head and looked into the distance, motionless like a stone sculpture, that noble temperament completely conquered her. As she was speaking, she stopped suddenly and said, "You go. I can't see him." There was a sundry store in front, and there were a few carts selling fruit at the door. There was no figure of the second master, but he felt that he was there.I continued to move forward, and because of the excitement, I naturally glowed with the murderous spirit of the competition.

A peddler who was peeling a pineapple stopped the knife in his hand, looked up at me, and subconsciously buried the knife in the pile of pineapples.The other vendors also looked at me absent-mindedly. At this moment, a man wearing a straw hat stood up from behind a few cars on the steps of the grocery store. He was wearing a dirty gray white shirt, with a stooped figure, he was the Second Master. He walked out from behind the fruit trolley, took out his handkerchief, spread out the money, and bought a catty of sand fruit, alleviating the tension of the hawkers.He glanced at me reproachfully, shaking the fruit bag in his hand.

I hurried over, bowed my head to take it, and called out, "Second Master." He didn't answer, and walked forward.He was half as short as a man on his back, and walked slowly. I followed behind, feeling his curved back pressing down on me like a hill. Walking uphill, I caught up with him and helped him by the arm.He put my hand on his arm, stopped and said in a low voice, "Have you mastered your martial arts?" I nodded.He straightened his back as much as he could, because his face was covered by the straw hat, and he didn't know what his expression was.We stood on the slope for a while, and he said: "I'm going slowly, you go first, and wait for me at the door of the house." I said to go together, he snorted sternly, I didn't dare to say any more, and ran up the slope.

After waiting at the door of his house for twenty minutes, the second master wandered over.He raised his head, with a smile on his face, and said, "If you've done it, don't shock the world." He opened the courtyard door and led me to his room.His room was originally rebuilt from the aisle, and the briquettes used in winter were piled up in the room, and a high bed was placed in the remaining space. Upon closer inspection, it was found that it was made of two old boxes.There was a cardboard box at the foot of the bed, and there were seven or eight bowls piled up. There were food residues on the bowls, which had turned into a dirty color.

The second master smiled and said: "It's too troublesome to wash the dishes after eating one meal. I save it for ten days before washing." His face was kept clean, his body smelled bad, and he hadn't bathed for some time.The first time I saw him more than ten years ago, he was a fashionable old man, all he could do now was wash his face. I asked, "Do you have dinner with your second uncle?" He waved his hand and said, "He goes to and from get off work at a fixed time, and I'm idle. I don't know when I'll be hungry. We can't eat a piece." He sat down neatly until The bed that was too high seemed to have already adapted to his life.

He took out an empty space and let me sit on it too, and then asked about grandpa's situation.I didn't mention the black nail incident, only that grandpa was in good health and was fighting for the house.He said with emotion: "Yes, your grandfather has never done anything in his life, and he can leave a few houses, which is considered an achievement." I said that my grandfather's handwriting is very good, and this is an achievement.He said disdainfully: "Writing well, what's the name?" After speaking, he slid off the bed, stood on the ground and said, "Are your parents okay?" I noticed a waterline on his trousers, crotch to feet.He wet his pants while talking to me.

He noticed my gaze, interrupted and said, "I didn't expect you to keep practicing boxing. I was really surprised. What else do you want to learn?" I said, "Second Master, you change your pants, and I will wash them for you." He laughed loudly: "When people are old, they tend to lose control of their bowel movements. It's a common thing. Whatever it is, it will be done in a while." There are spots on his trousers. I took out five hundred dollars and said it was for him.He insisted on not accepting it, saying, "Xinjiang sends me pension twice a year. I have money. It's not easy for you young people." I explained to him that it was the magazine's contribution fee, which he deserved.

He said he knew about the article, which was written by me.I said, "What I wrote is what you said." He thought for a while, and then smiled. I took the opportunity to stuff the money under his pillow, and he stood there, sighing, "I'm ashamed to accept it." When I told him that the magazine was going to create a series of columns for him, he responded indifferently, saying: "I don't want to mention the past." After drying his trousers, he sat back on the bed, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Kungfu is an ancestral artifact, and it's fine if it can be passed down. As long as there are martial arts in the world, we martial arts practitioners have fulfilled our responsibilities. Martial arts are not for doing things." Yes, if you want to use martial arts to do things, you will be punished by heaven." I knew that what he was referring to was the failed boxing movement to save the country seventy years ago.I said that I would give up the idea of ​​writing an article from then on.He smiled with satisfaction and said, "I'll see how many punches you punch." His eyes showed a sharp light like the edge of a sword.

But the sharp light was fleeting.If he had been cared for and properly nourished after his car accident more than a decade ago, his body would not have deteriorated to such an extent. I got to the ground and punched in the gaps in the coal pile.After punching, I saw him huddled in the corner of the bed with a look of panic.After a long time, he said: "When I was the strongest, I could reach 60% of your master. It seems that it will be very difficult for you to reach 10% of your master." He talked about boxing to me restlessly, and repeatedly said that he I was sorry for that year.When he repeated it for the fifth time, I couldn't help but say, "Second Master, I'm sorry for you." After speaking, I felt that the blood vessels on both sides of my neck almost burst. When he came to me dragging his sick body back then, I sent him out of the house on a snowy night. I once created a situation where I was going to live outside when he lived in my house, so that he no longer came to the house... He stared at me blankly, waved his hand and said, "Don't interrupt me. Listen to me talking about boxing." He continued to speak, but his thinking was obviously lost, and he stopped thinking of words after speaking a few words. At twelve o'clock, there was a sound at the courtyard door, and the second uncle came back from get off work.He was very happy to see me, saying that it had been many years since any relatives had come.He invited me to a restaurant for dinner and said he would bring the second master along.The second master took out a bottle of Erguotou from a dirty basket and said triumphantly: "Bring your own soju." The label on the bottle was covered with black stains, making it disgusting.I advised him not to take the bottle to the restaurant, where we could buy alcohol.He gestured to the wine bottle in his hand, and asked carefully: "What's wrong with this?" The second uncle said sullenly, "If you tell you to put it down, just put it down." The second master followed us to the restaurant in bewilderment.I asked the second master to order, and he ordered three meat dishes in one go. The second uncle said: "You are getting old, and it is not good to eat too much high-fat food. I think you can go to the braised pork and replace it with vegetables." The second master murmured: "The braised pork is very good." But he didn't insist, and when we ordered a cup for him, he smiled. The mug is white wine in a glass, sealed with a plastic lid.After the second master finished drinking, he quickly rolled the cup off the table with a grasping technique and hid it in his clothes.But his martial arts are running out, and my second uncle and I have seen this little move. The second uncle is a person who has a good face in front of people. He knocked on the table and said, "Dad, take it out." The second master said aggrievedly: "The waiter didn't see it." A cup, including the wine and the cup, is worth one yuan. The cup is ours, so there is no need to steal it!" The second master was taken aback, sighed "ashamed", put the cup back on the table, and said, "It looks so classy, ​​I It can be used to rinse your mouth, or to drink water." Touching it with his hand, he looked happy. It was an ordinary cup. The second uncle has been watching my face, smiled at me, and said: "It's really an old boy, I can't be serious with him." He patted the second master and shouted: "Dad, don't you just like this cup? Waiter, Three more glasses!" The second master quickly said that he couldn't drink that much wine, and the second uncle laughed heartily: "It's for you to go home and drink, after you finish drinking, you can do whatever you want with the cup." The second master smiled happily. A thought came into my mind: If the second master is a celebrity, the second uncle will treat him better, right?I said that the second master is famous all over the world, and the magazine wants the second master to write a series of articles.The second uncle sneered, and said, "Dad, what skills do you have? Do you have any?" The second master's facial features contracted, his fingers crossed, and he hugged the cup. Me: "I was taught by the second master, just try me. You hold my arm, I don't move, I can bounce your hand away." The second uncle: "I am a porter, and I work hard. But Don't mention strength to me." He reached out and grabbed my right arm like a pincer. I glanced at the second master, and the second uncle's hand bounced off my arm like an electric shock.Unconvinced, he grabbed my arm a second time.He quickly withdrew his hand, leaned his neck back for a while, and said, "What's wrong? My head hurts from the shock." The second master flicked the glass with his fingers, with a leisurely expression, as if he was very satisfied with me.I suggested that the second master talk to me once a month, and after sorting out the articles, send them to him for review, and delete the content that he thinks should not be made public.He took a sip of white wine and said, "That means you will come twice a month?" After speaking, he nodded and agreed. The second uncle spent more than seventy yuan for this meal, and the second master was full with wine and food.After that, the second master went home, and the second uncle took me to the station.Walking through the train track and the free market, the second uncle frowned, with complex patterns on his forehead. He said that his mother had passed away four years ago, leaving only his father, and it was impossible for him not to treat him well. Me: "But you don't eat together." Second uncle: "I don't care about him, and I don't abuse him. This is to treat him well." He said that the second master committed heinous crimes against his wife and children. He has been blamed for half his life. As a child of a labor camp, he has been boiled in the pot rotten.He is fifty-one years old this year. He wants to get rid of the past, live a human life, and buy a house and a car. After the bus arrived, he was still impassioned, and he sped up his speech and said: "No one in life has died since ancient times, so keep your loyalty and history - while you are alive, do something worthwhile, don't waste time on the old man, in the future you Do not come again."