Chapter 39 Beautiful nostalgia in wandering

Xiao Weidong I remember that at the end of 1995, I saw a collection of essays in a bookstore: "The Transformation of Men", the author is Gu Qingsheng.I flipped through it, liked the stray words in it, and bought it, even though I didn't have much money with me at the time. For a long time after that, every night, I would wander around Beijing with him in the words described by Brother Gu. At the time when many people (including me) were still proud of eating imperial food, Brother Gu abandoned his job and went to Beijing with a 286 computer on his back. I really admire his wisdom and courage. Since then, I have been following Brother Gu’s work work.

Because I also love literature and have published some works, I really yearn for the life like Brother Gu.Later I told my girlfriend that I also wanted to go to Beijing to wander and write, just like Gu Qingsheng did.My girlfriend touched my forehead and said, you have a fever!I don't have a fever. In 1997, I left my work unit, but instead of going to Beijing, I went south to Guangdong. I carried the book "The Metamorphosis of a Man" with me.Later, I entered a foreign-funded enterprise, and because of the needs of survival, I was almost insulated from literature. The book "The Metamorphosis of a Man" was also lost by a colleague, and the Beijing described by Brother Gu also became a pain in my heart.

Later, I bought Brother Gu's "The Drifter's Dinner" and liked it very much.During the part-time job, it accompanied me through many ups and downs. At the beginning of May this year, I finally got a book signed by Brother Gu, the title is .In my mind, Brother Gu appeared as a wandering writer, and I wondered how he could write and eat. At night, I sat on the bed and flipped through a few pages. My dull taste cells were mobilized by Brother Gu's clever words.In a trance, I also wandered with Brother Gu in the book following the flow of words... In Zhejiang, we went to Hangzhou to eat steamed flavor, and went to Wenzhou to eat shrimp roe sauce, ginger sprouts, and braised duck tongue.One day, while eating horseshoe bamboo shoots, Gu Xizi said to me, "Eating fresh bamboo shoots is my favorite since I was young. When I was young in the countryside in southern Jiangxi, my uncle opened a Chinese medicine shop, and people always came to buy medicines. Medicinal wine or talking about hunting in winter. At that time, tigers were extremely rare. I only saw a tiger that was beaten once. Its mouth and four claws were wrapped in red cloth, and four big men carried the tiger away with door panels. , very ostentatious. When I met a village, I stopped at the entrance of the village to show it, put the door panel on a stool, and people were happy to move a stool for them. I felt that anyone who beat a tiger would be a sensational event. Of course, people must at least Only a leopard has the guts to dare to fight a tiger. Ordinary people are not brave enough to fight a tiger. Fortunately, there were wild boars, muntjacs and pheasants that ordinary people could hunt. I have seen the wild boars they hunted. I am also a veteran of eating bamboo shoots. There was a thin senior who said he could dig winter bamboo shoots, which completely captured my admiration, because the winter bamboo shoots are not yet budding, and there is no burst on the surface of the winter bamboo shoots. It can be said that the larger shoots of bamboo are all in the soil. The senior said that he judged which side the main root of the bamboo grows based on experience. I like to eat fried cured duck with winter bamboo shoots. The preserved meat of the duck is very fragrant, and the bamboo green flavor of the winter bamboo shoots is very fresh. When I smell the fried cured duck with winter bamboo shoots, I can’t move my legs. The shells of bamboo shoots need to be imagined, even winter bamboo shoots fried with bacon." ("Good Bamboo Lianshan Feels the Fragrance of Bamboo Shoots")

Sometimes we even went to Nanxi River and Yandang Mountain to eat. I wandered around with Brother Gu, and went to Lanzhou to eat ramen and sheep's head.In Xi'an, eating noodles and mutton steamed buns, standing at the foot of the city wall and blowing xun, accompanied by someone singing Qin Opera, the sound and rhyme are so far and deep, as if they came from the hearts of thousands of years of deep sorrow and grievances, and there are continuous mutton puffs. Steamed bun taste.Eat "foreign guest breakfast" in the ancient city of Pingyao, eat mutton steamed buns in Lintong, and eat light and fresh vegetables and soups in Guangdong.Eat hot and dry noodles in Wuhan.Eat exquisite grilled bran in Shanghai.Eat grilled shrimp in Qingdao and loofah in Zhangmuxi.

Of course, pork, shepherd's purse, and grandma's bacon glutinous rice cakes are also indispensable, and I have also eaten stewed starlings.However, in Beijing, a well-hidden gourmet center, I have only eaten Hubei cuisine in Beijing, and I have never eaten the dishes made by Brother Gu in copper hot pot. I don’t know how it tastes. In my spare time, I either go to the street with Brother Gu to buy crabs, or read "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism on Health Preservation" with Brother Gu, or go to Beijing Tongzhou Baliqiao Tea Street to buy tea and chat with Brother Gu.Sometimes I listen to classical music such as Strauss or "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon", sometimes I watch the scenery of small bridges and flowing water, the fragrance of frost and reed rice, cranes perched in distant trees, or cattle walking slowly by the lakeside and riverside.Sometimes I go to teahouses to watch tea art performances.

While eating red tomatoes and watery fish jelly, Brother Gu stared at the chopped green onion on the sliced ​​meat soup and talked to me about the teeth of the nation. When eating beans, Brother Gu talked about his beans complex, "I played truant for the first time when I was studying, and the teacher came to my house. The school is dozens of steps away from my house. My grandma and I were in the vegetable garden. When I saw the teacher coming, I hid in I hid it under the bean stand. At that time, if my grandma found me, she would beat me up. She couldn’t tolerate my truancy, and my logic was that the whole class skipped school. If I didn’t, she would also I don’t know how wronged I am. Hiding under the bean stand, my body trembled uncontrollably, but I avoided a disaster. Therefore, I love beans.” ("Old Horn and New Garlic")

When eating shepherd's purse, he introduced to me "shepherd's purse, widely known as ground vegetable, and also called sparrow vegetable, field vegetable, chicken dish, flower field vegetable, nursery grass, ground vegetable, ground rice vegetable, etc. in some places. Beside the river and stream, in the fields of mountains and fields, there is an inadvertent cluster of dense green fields under the thin clouds and light mist, with small white flowers blooming like broken rice grains and amazed in the wind. At this time, it is very easy to think of when I was a child carrying a basket and holding a shovel , I invited my friends in floral clothes to dig shepherd's purse, and walked on the soft land in the field. The years of long sleep through winter, flickering in the spring when the magnolia blooms, like the indifference of cooking smoke, or the rippling of water like the cool melancholy of early spring "("Shepherd's Purse")

In spring, we sometimes go to the farmer’s vegetable field to pull the roots, peel off the outer skin, cut them into strips, put them in plastic baskets and put them on the window sill to dry, remove some water, put them in oil and dry them, and serve them with some shredded green peppers and a few stalks of ginger Shredded, put a little salt, it feels that the fragrance of the whole cabbage is concentrated on this small root, the aroma is rich and sweet, and the old cabbage root still has a hint of spicy.The root of the vegetable should be chewed, it is denser and more flexible than the leaf, especially after being dehydrated in the sun, it is also somewhat spongy.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, we listened to songs by the water, ate rice dumplings, and watched dragon boats. In the autumn fields, we chatted with the old man who harvested mung beans.I remember that on September 9th, we drank a lot of wine when we ate snails in soup and marinated Duxian, and finally lay drunk on Matsuoka. In winter, I will drink New Year's wine with Brother Gu. To be honest, in the process of wandering with Brother Gu, I ate a lot of food, but there were not many days when I really ate sunny days. Most of the time, what I experienced was that of Brother Gu’s wandering. A deep nostalgia.

I haven't finished reading it carefully. On May 15th, I went online at an Internet cafe and learned that Yuelu Publishing House had published three books by Brother Gu:,,,.The book is not available for purchase at the moment, so I have to go online to have a sneak peek. However, because I am engaged in design work, the boss is afraid that we will disclose the design information of the new product, so he is not allowed to go online.So I made an excuse, and I said that I needed to search for information to design a new product, and the boss agreed.I didn't take a break at noon for more than two weeks, so I hurriedly read these three books.

Just like Brother Gu's other wandering writings, these three books also contain local customs, folk culture, historical traditions, and a lingering affection for the hometown.But watching it on a computer is very uncomfortable for the eyes. I think the text should be more comfortable to read on paper. I have read all four of Brother Gu's books, but, as far as my personal taste is concerned, this book is the one I like the most.