Chapter 18 Mr. Browning's Butter Bread

The setting sun dyed the high-rise buildings in the mid-levels of Hong Kong, and Mr. Browning's living room was full of golden light, and even his silver-gray hair and silver-gray beard turned gray.Mr. Browning didn't like this home; he especially didn't like such a reckless sunset: "The sunset stabbed the dignity of my beard"; Sea patrol, "not to mention the heyday of ancient Greece, this world has such a lovely, just and childish overlord today!" Mr. Browning liked this sentence said by Sandyana very much; mountain township.British gentlemen and gentlemen should like rural life after all, raising horses, hounds, shotguns, and fishing rods; "A big study is indispensable, like in England." Mr. Browning said.The British people scattered in the colonies are not too bookish, "but I am different!" Mr. Browning looks down on these British people who don't know what is going on in the British theater, so Mr. Browning has never played much on the political stage here Sing.He had to immerse himself in the colonial novels of Kipling, Foster, and Paul Scott; "That's all. It doesn't matter if you go back to England or not," he said.The British in Virginia in the 17th century and Kenya in the 20th century tried their best to create a British country atmosphere in their destinations: apple-green grass, cold-mixed vegetables as primitive forests, and streams as clear as pale beer.However, this home in Hong Kong is actually on the sixth floor of a high-rise building. When he moved here from England, Mr. Browning said to Mrs. Browning with a wry smile: "I didn't expect that we became my favorite minced meat." The stuffing in the pie is full: there are people on the left, right, top, bottom, and the people have become minced meat and stuffing, squeezed into a piece of pie." Mr. Browning drew the thick curtains on the west window tightly, and the living room suddenly It was hazy, like the old house of Old Browning in the western suburbs of London: clumps of small roses on the four walls of wallpaper scattered all the way from the ceiling to the room, and the walls were full of old photos with wooden mirror frames, with water stains in the light brown There is a gold-rimmed oil painting behind the dining table, which depicts the cliffs and waves in Roaring Heights.Several sets of porcelain plates and cups are neatly arranged in the glass wooden cabinet by the door of the small study.At a glance, there are pots of lush flowers and plants everywhere, and the greenery of survival cannot be covered in the dark.After the newsreel of the British foreign minister's flight back home after his visit to China and Hong Kong was shown on the TV screen, Mr. Browning immediately turned off the TV set. "What's wrong with getting more sunshine here? Our old bones are going to be moldy when we go back to England!" Mrs. Browning babbled again in the bedroom. "Go back to England"?The English people here don't mention these words; but when the azaleas bloomed this year, the gardener Lao Wang downstairs asked him: "The flowers bloom so well this year, I don't know how it will be next year?" Mr. Browning No answer: when the buttered bread falls, the buttered side always hits the ground first; it is doomed.This is how he sees the future of Hong Kong and his own future.But he didn't say it.Mr. Browning read a passage in Sir Walter Raleigh's "Laughter in the Cloud" that is still unforgettable: the essence of English gentlemanly manners is an attitude of neglect and contempt for people and things; It has something to do with the sense of superiority; the gentleman disdains suspicion, fear, and prediction; the mediocre loves all three;No apologies.The words were old and sour, like old Browning's rheumatoid arthritis, but Mr. Browning thought even the English rheumatologists were kind: "Complaining about moldy bones! Women!" he thought.When I was a child, I read a ballad. It said that two hundred years ago in England, a young man fell in love with a noble lady. One night, we all stayed in an inn, and the two rooms were separated by a board. They also discussed for a long time to fight for the chamber pot. "Today, two hundred years later, my woman is talking about whether the bones in England are moldy or not! The era of ladies and maids sharing chamber pots is long gone, and she always forgets what classes of British people should and shouldn't talk about! Mr. Browning took a few deep puffs of his pipe on the sofa, and he couldn't help thinking of the story that the old Browning told several times: the British Antarctic expedition ran out of food in the ice and snow. Knowing that if he persisted, his teammates would be hurt and he would not be able to reach the next supply station to call for help, so he sneaked away and disappeared in the snowstorm. In 1913, the news came back to Britain, and the British praised him as a "brave gentleman". !The stories are endless; Mr. Browning glanced sideways at a newspaper on the coffee table: the Foreign Minister met with Deng Xiaoping; people from all walks of life were discussing the green paper on the representative system.He yawned and threw the newspaper on the newspaper rack. "God knows what a representative system is!" He muttered to himself: Before India's independence, an Indian consultant expert of a large company kept criticizing the British colonial government in the Legislative Assembly. After independence, he continued to criticize the rulers and even quit the Congress Party Openly stood in the opposition camp. One day, the boss told him to shut up and stop criticizing the government, or he was asked to leave. He said to the boss: "But I have always opposed the British government in the past. Why don't you stop me? "The boss said: "Those Englishmen are gentlemen.These people are politicians. "Mr. Browning pursed his lips and smiled slightly." What's so funny! "His woman came out of the bedroom and opened the thick curtains, the sun was setting outside the window, and the twilight was very thick: "Look, it's getting dark! Mr. Browning was taken aback, and suddenly felt a little lonely: "When the buttered bread falls, will it really be the buttered side that hits the ground first?" "He hurried to turn on the wall lamp at the beginning, but the light bulb was broken and the light didn't work. He heard the sound of the gardener Old Wang watering the flowers downstairs.