Chapter 50 Section VII

Liu Qi (American writer) In the winter when I lived in Queens, New York, the snow fell very frequently, and the streets were always white after sweeping.One day when I was free, I went to a Chinese video store in Flushing to rent tapes.The shop owner just came back from mainland China and knew about popular movies and TV shows. He picked out a stack of tapes and spread them on the countertop. He said that this tape is not bad.That disc was also very popular. Gangsters from Guangdong and Guangxi joined forces to sell drugs and force girls into prostitution, all of which were forced on the heads of female policemen.

I said, did you write about the Northeast? The owner said that they don't have it now, but they can get a plate in a few days. At this time, someone suddenly yelled: "Who, do you want to watch Northeast movies so much?" I was startled, and said, I want to see it. The man laughed: New York is still big and small, I thought I was the only one who likes watching Northeast movies.He also said, young man, are you from Shenyang? I said, let me guess, you are also from Shenyang. The man laughed again: Do we still have to guess?Opening his mouth, there is a smell of lettuce. Who can speak so nicely except Shenyang people?

How good it is to connect the hometown dialect with the wild vegetables in the hometown!It was a woman who said this, and my heart became hot, and I immediately had a good impression of her. Not just because she is from her hometown. And not just because she is bright and happy. The point is that she is an old lady in her sixties and seventies, about the same age as my mother, and her appearance and demeanor are also similar. The most similar thing is the body, they are all spacious and rich. During that period, I was always homesick, especially my mother. When I met a fatter old lady on the street, I often couldn't help but look twice.It's a pity that most Americans are made out of Western models. They are fat and fat, but they don't have the right style. When they talk, they are even more outrageous, and they make sharp turns. It's hard for you to think of your hometown.It's all right now, in a vast foreign country, suddenly such a lovely old man appeared, God really cares about me.

We didn't bother to pick out the straps, so we just found a bench and chatted when we sat down. The old lady, surnamed Wu, came from Xinchengyu, a suburb of Shenyang. She wore an old-fashioned black woolen short coat, and she looked kindly and down-to-earth.The back of the hand is numb, and the fingers are rough. Without long-term sharpening of rough and meticulous work, it is absolutely impossible to achieve this appearance.Most likely, she is a family member of an overseas student who came to the United States to visit her grandson, do housework, do housework, plant three handfuls of leeks and two handfuls of green onions.If you are free today, just go here and rent a video tape for entertainment.

New York's belt, red blood red, pink bright pink, cuddling and hugging, killing and hacking, may not suit the old man's mind.She should like commenting on operas or Errenzhuan, and she might even babble and sing, such as "Tea Bottle Tactics", such as "Little Gu Xian". This time I didn’t guess right. It’s true that Mrs. Wu likes Northeast dramas. It’s not bad to say that she is a family member, but she is not an old man who is an overseas student today, but a wife and family member of the former national army. She has studied in private schools and high schools. It has a lot of history.

Many years ago, she followed her husband from the mainland to Taiwan, and later moved to the United States.Her husband is also from Shenyang, half his life as a soldier, and he was an official to colonel.If I hadn't aged at all these years and remained in my teenage years, I believe my reaction would be very strong.Guojun!Colonel!These two words are not simple, and can lead to a long list of heart-pounding things: big hat, small sword, white gloves, long boots, the heel of the shoe is very thick, it seems that iron has been nailed, so as to refer to Generalissimo Jiang With a slap from time to time, he stood at attention.give it to me!I'll kill anyone who doesn't go up!It's not that we are incompetent, it's that the Communist Army is too cunning... and so on and so on.However, I am already old, and I have caught up with the diverse society that is not surprising, and my experience has greatly increased after going abroad. Therefore, I just said it was good in a vague way, and I was not particularly surprised.

When old Mrs. Wu brought up the past, her tone was very flat, as if she was talking about commonplace things like needles and needles.She doesn't look like an official wife, her hardworking and simple hands can hold the soles of shoes.A boot patch might work too.In the foreign atmosphere of New York and the Cantonese environment of the Chinese colony, listening to her speak in a mellow local accent is simply a kind of enjoyment. When I close my eyes, I even feel intoxicated when I go home.My home is in Shenhe District. To the north of Shenhe District is Huanggu District. Going further north, passing through buildings, railways, rivers and small lakes, is a large area of ​​cropland in Xinchengzi District.When I was in junior high school, I went to a village there to participate in summer hoeing. The sun was setting and the heat was fading away. The waist-deep corn was black and green, with a sweet fragrance. Jinjin is particularly pleasant.As the night fell, the young female teacher was so good at waving, we sang up and down, high and low: the sky is full of stars, the crescent moon is shining brightly, there is a meeting in the production team, complaining and redressing grievances...

Old Mrs. Wu told me the name of the village where her family was located, and asked me which bunker I went to back then, but I said I couldn't remember. She was a little disappointed, and asked about the address of my parents' house in detail. When she heard that they lived on Sanjing Road, she was very excited, showing a look of longing.She seemed to be familiar with that area, she mentioned several street names and old buildings in a row, and also mentioned the brown building in the city hall square, saying that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the whole city held a meeting, and Lao Jiang and Soong Meiling stood on the building. On the road, waved frequently to the cheering Northeast people.

At that time, old Mrs. Wu was still a girl with a yellow flower who had not left the pavilion. She was also there, wearing a blue cheongsam, so excited that she wanted to cry, and her voice was hoarse. I said that I also held a meeting in the city hall square to celebrate the 11th and criticize the "Gang of Four" What.There were quite a few officials attending the meeting. They were all standing upstairs, but none were particularly big. The tallest one was the secretary of the provincial party committee. They were far away, separated by mountains of people, flags and seas, soldiers, police and militias. What does it look like.

Old Mrs. Wu said with a smile, the Chinese just like to hold conferences, and you can continue after we finish. I said that it is not very open now, let alone that building, which is short and crawling. Compared with some skyscrapers and glass buildings around it, it looks gray and overshadowed.The square has expanded quite a bit, with green grass planted and railings all around. No one is allowed to go in and rake or step on it, and anyone who goes in will be fined. After the two fellow villagers got acquainted, they often met at the video store in Flushing. Since they all rented the tapes at the same time, they returned them at about the same time.

The rent was paid off, the rent was paid off, the snow melted in a blink of an eye, and the spring breeze was blowing. Old Mrs. Wu and I were already very familiar. She is quick-talking, enthusiastic and optimistic, and her personality is very similar to my mother, so we naturally had a good conversation.The scope of the talk is extremely wide, from the South to the North, from the East China Sea to the West, talk about whatever you catch.For some of Taiwan's more visible achievements (limited space and obvious to all, I will not list them), I give a thumbs up and say yes, how wonderful.The old lady was dissatisfied: No, no, there are a lot of bad things, and the tone is like a senior officer who has the overall situation in mind.I don't think it's ridiculous, because when I compliment the old lady on her youthful face, she will keep saying no.Of course, there are still disputes, although not very intense.For example, once, when the question of simplified characters was mentioned, the old lady disdainfully said: You mainland, you are doing nonsense.Good Chinese characters have been used for thousands of years. If you want to change them, you can change them. If you lose your arms and legs, you have to read from left to right. Is it awkward? I was a little displeased when I heard it: Of course your traditional characters are good, not only to pass the time, but also to exercise physical strength, and look from right to left, when encountering foreign feet or Arabic numerals between the lines - these are from left to right Look, you flick your heads to one side and then to the other. Those who know say you are studying, but those who don’t know think you are dancing tango. The old Mrs. Wu laughed loudly, and she didn't think it was disobedient. Instead, she praised my eloquence, saying that all eloquent people from the mainland are good. No wonder Taiwan is reluctant to negotiate with Beijing. She has a very bright voice, which is also like my mother.Whether she praised us or scolded us (called "ruthlessly" in the Northeast dialect), my mother always had a loud voice, and the lingering lingering voice lingered.Even the strange words of the authorities in "Zhang Ge", Yu Yin dared to go around, causing the father, who changed his criticism every day, to be terrified, and repeatedly begged: lower your voice, lower your voice. The difference between the two Northeast women is that the mother married the Communist Party, and the old Mrs. Wu married the Kuomintang.This marriage destined her to stay far away for most of her life, missing her hometown but not being able to reach it. I said, why are your voices so loud? Old Mrs. Wu: Boy, do you know about the Songliao Great Plains?Spacious, bright tiles and sunny days, without walls or covers, people like to open their voices and shout vigorously, so that they are happy. Although we speak the same local accent and never tire of listening to each other, sometimes we encounter language barriers and the conversation gets stuck. You look at me and I look at you, thinking that there is something wrong with the mouth or ears.After careful questioning, it turned out that Bush was Bush, Castro was Castro, missiles were missiles, bento boxes were lunches, the Battle of Xubang was the Battle of Huaihai, and the fall of the mainland was the rise of the Chinese people... So she laughed at me, I laughed at her, and after laughing, I often asked: Where did we talk about just now? The Northeast movie promised by the shop owner, Shanshan, has finally arrived. It is an old black and white movie that I have watched countless times in the era of cultural unity - "Guardian of the Railway", the lines in it are so familiar that I can recite them by heart.I told my wife, this video is really good, it was shot in our Shenyang, there is Zhongjie Department Store, and Zhongshan Park, you should see it first.The old lady talked about the content of the performance, and I said anti-rape and anti-travesty, against your Kuomintang. Who is the KMT?The old lady said, do you think I look like the Kuomintang?If I had the final say, the KMT would not be where it is today. The old lady and I are not politicians, so we finally got together, so we should talk more about other things.Ordinary people in the United States should eat and have fun, so why bother with politics?I once asked an old man who repaired cars who was the Secretary of State, and the old man rolled his eyes: Do I need to know who he is?However, the old Mrs. Wu and I were very strange. No matter what we chatted, we always got involved in politics, as if we rushed to the video store excitedly to participate in routine cadre learning activities.The old lady spoke very enthusiastically, and she also had a lot of experience, some of which sounded quite new to me, even unbelievable.For example, she pointed out that after the "August 15" recovery, Zhang Xueliang should be released and sent back to the Northeast to take charge of the affairs, so that the Communist Party would be embarrassed to fight.Unexpectedly, Lao Jiang made a wrong move and sent Chen Cheng out.Chen Cheng is a man of integrity. He likes to raise fish in clean water. The Puppet Manchukuo army would not even send them to their door.Lin Biao still thought that there were not enough soldiers, so he burned the kang to a boil, and asked all the rural boys to sit on it for a meeting to discuss the matter of smoking.Gu Jia, a member of the Zhuangyuan, did not want to go with the PLA: But the kang was too hot, and the buttocks were smoking. If you move your nest, people will say that you have expressed your opinion and asked to go to the front line. I felt that what she said was a bit disincentive to the enthusiasm of the people, so I retorted that the last thing the common people want to be is the Central Army.Think of the central government, look forward to the central government, and suffer even more when the central government comes. Old Mrs. Wu raised her eyebrows: The Central Army is not as bad as you say, and there are some who are well-disciplined. She even gave a few examples, talking about how brave and good they are, which makes me feel good I'm so angry, I really want to choke her with a harsh word - you are so good at fighting, why did you "transfer" to Taiwan.I thought again, forget it, she is just an old lady, she belongs to the masses, so she can't be so serious.Besides, I didn't fight the war, it was me who fought. It's not interesting to be brave back then. If you have the ability to make the mainland a good place, let Taiwan's old and young, poor and rich, local and other provinces, all scramble to move. In the past, no matter how they were thrown out, they would not go away. Seeing that I didn't say anything, the old lady seemed to have sensed something, and her tone dropped immediately: Look at my mouth, it's useless to say something, don't take it to heart.I don't mean anything else, I just love chatting with people from my hometown, and I am happy to chat about anything.You are hot-hearted, you don’t mind my old lady’s nagging, you don’t need to mention foreigners, and ordinary Chinese are not good, who cares about listening to these old sesame seeds and rotten millet?In these years, it was the first time that I said so much at once: I said it’s okay, and I liked it very much. When I was in China, when I came home, my mother would always talk about the past; Let me help you with some work.My mother said that you don't need to work, just chatting with me will do the job. The old Mrs. Wu sighed, and said incoherently, people, no one wants to say that they have lived their lives in vain. One evening, after returning the video tape, the old lady insisted on inviting me to dinner.I'm afraid she's in a hurry, so I don't support her too much.Most of the Chinese restaurants in New York serve southern tastes, and occasionally there are one or two northern dishes, which are cooked as you like, without any style.So, we missed the food and drink in the Northeast at the dinner table.I said that if I had a bowl of stewed pork noodles now, I would not be afraid to be a death squad in the Middle East.In the past, Beijingers talked about cross talk and laughed at the old hats from the Northeast, so they knew to eat this.Now that they taste the taste, they also want to be old hats. In the streets and alleys, they can't wait for a big pot to be stewed in every small restaurant. How about stewing in a big pot?Old Mrs. Wu raised doubts: It's not the company's kitchen, chop up a few catties of fatty meat slices, sprinkle a couple of sticks of bad noodles, and just chug chug.The authentic stewed pork vermicelli is quite particular, not just any old Zhang Laoli dares to make it. The meat is multi-layered, and the vermicelli is a good potato wide noodle. Don’t underestimate the wide noodle, you have a lot of knowledge... ... The old man's eyes were shining, and he spoke very carefully.At that moment, she really had the demeanor of an official wife who never tires of food. The old man told me that sauerkraut is her favorite food.In the autumn and winter of 1948 (what a distant day), the Kuomintang and the Communist Party fought fiercely between Liao and Shenyang. Her husband's army was tough at first, but gradually it couldn't stand it anymore.When the old Mrs. Wu left Shenyang, she looked at the vat of white sauerkraut at home, and felt very reluctant.The husband said what time it was, and he was still thinking about eating.Let's go, one step too late will lose your life.Old Mrs. Wu said that she didn't know what to do at the time. She just took two steps and then turned back. She took out a sauerkraut from the tank, snapped off the side, and left a small vegetable heart, which she held in her hand and ate while walking.She got into her husband's mid-size jeep and ate, causing all the people in the car to look at her like a fool. Fifty years later, the old man lowered his dry eyelids and said in a low voice that he had never eaten such good sauerkraut. As the dinner was coming to an end, I pretended to go to the bathroom and took the opportunity to go to the counter to pay the meal fee and tip.After the old man knew it, he didn't argue deliberately, but just reprimanded him softly. Coming out of the hotel, the night wind from the Atlantic is already very cool.I helped the old man across the road to the bus stop. The old man faltered, but his mouth was firm, and he said that she could walk by herself.Her home is not far away, and every time she comes to Flushing, she has to walk for a long time.While waiting for the car, the old man said, come to my house next time, and I will give you millet porridge and a box of roasted leeks.I agreed wholeheartedly, and the old man seemed very satisfied.When we were in the middle of the night, she suddenly put her arms around my arm, and said a little hoarsely: "My child, you should be careful when you go home by yourself." When we got in the car, she waved to me repeatedly through the glass.The English advertisements on the side of the car were mottled with shadows, and the foreign passengers in the car were drowsy, except for my year-old fellow with long eyes and frosty temples. I've been too busy to visit video stores since then.Old Mrs. Wu called several times to invite me to her house to "recognize the door". I was so bad that I kept procrastinating.In the summer, I got a chance to go back to China, and I was entangled in Pepsi before the trip. I really couldn't spare the time to say goodbye to the old man face to face, so I called.The old man felt very abrupt and remained silent for a while. I said, let me go to Xinchengzi to have a look and grow old for you. She said no need, there was no one in my hometown. I said, if there is anything else you need to do, you can just tell me. The old lady was silent for a moment, and said slowly, how happy she should be to bring your son home for your old mother. Bai Yuncanggou, the world is unpredictable.It has been a year since I saw the sky of New York again.I opened the address book and found Mrs. Wu's number.Next to the address book is the latest version of the Shenyang tour album, plus a bag of vacuum-packed Northeast sauerkraut.The phone rang a few times, but no one answered it, and then it rang a few more times, and the operator's recorded voice came out of the receiver, with a low voice and zero emotion—sorry, this number has been canceled. I have a "single-line connection" with my boss, and I don't know anyone in her life circle.Her wife passed away for many years, her only son also died of illness, leaving only one granddaughter, who married far away in Belgium, and never forgets to send a greeting card during the holidays.The old lady lives on her little savings, and sometimes does odd jobs for others.I don't know how the old man is doing now, is she still renting tapes?