Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Chinese Restaurant

Life between heaven and earth is suddenly like a traveler from afar.It turns out that we are all just a grain of dust left in the vast ocean, small and fragile, lonely and speechless.How to live a hasty and short life satisfactorily depends on each person's state of mind and pursuit.How much courage and determination are needed to go from misty dawn to dusk and moonlit night; from a green youth to late life. There are always some people who are worthy of our admiration and appreciation throughout our lives.I am not envious of their affluent life, nor obsessed with their fame, but love their attitude towards life and pursuit of dreams.Don't you know that behind all the wealth and fame and fortune, there are too many unknown bitterness hidden behind.One day, the gorgeous decoration will fade away, and all will return to simplicity.

If Sanmao hadn't been to the Sahara, and hadn't been tempered by so many winds and rains, how could he have the later glory.A journey of mountains and rivers, several springs and autumns, during which the sun and the moon pass by, and the flowers fade and bloom, only oneself bears it.Sanmao has said countless times that she and Jose have many things in common.Although Jose has accompanied her for seven years, she has always had an independent personality, tasting all kinds of tastes alone. Since Sanmao went to the Sahara, her mother Miao Jinlan often went to the post office.Send her lots of favorite foods, and decorate the home with trinkets.And with those little gifts, I will miss my parents who are far away in the motherland.Sanmao, on the other hand, opened a "Chinese restaurant" in a small family with precious food such as vermicelli, seaweed, mushrooms, Shengli noodles, and pork jerky.Although there was only one diner and he didn't pay, Sanmao lived the dry life in the desert with all tastes.

"My daughter, although there have been too many ups and downs in the past years, we have exhausted the golden thread of love and weaved it stitch by stitch. I hope that the skillful workmanship of our parents can weave like God's. It’s the same as what was given to you, seamless, and your happy and healthy life. Children, please accept the blessings and prayers of your parents, and may the Lord bless you.” This is a letter written by my mother to Sanmao. It is sincere and touching.When their stubborn and independent daughter decided to go to the Sahara Desert, their parents didn't know how much warmth they could give her except blessings.They knew that the endless dust, the mirage under the setting sun, and those desolate beauties could fill her inner loneliness.

The world of mortals is like a dream, walked through the Sahara Desert, and experienced many hardships. Sanmao felt that the love and hatred, sorrow and joy in the past were not so important.The fame and wealth we have always yearned for are as natural to the Saharawi people as a grain of sand or a flower in the desert.They never complain about poverty, don't care about the world situation, and don't deliberately pursue anything.The Sahara is a peaceful and pure land, which cannot be changed by anyone who breaks into it.Compared with them, we are so shallow. The so-called "Chinese restaurant" is nothing more than Sanmao's complex about the food and life in his hometown.A woman who is very disgusted with housework, but is very interested in cooking.She believes that frying a dish with a few onions and a few slices of meat is an art worth appreciating.And the dazzling array of food from China, in the barren Sahara Desert, is a great blessing from God.

The first dish made by Sanmao is boiled chicken soup with vermicelli.Sanmao took a poetic name - rain, spring rain.Sanmao told Jose: "This is the first rain in spring. It fell on the high mountain and was frozen one by one. The mountain cellars were tied up and carried down the mountain and sold in bunches for rice wine. Drink, it's not easy to buy!" He Xi knew that Sanmao had lied to him, but he loved the delicious taste very much.Later, Jose often ate "chunyu", but he still didn't know what it was made of. The second time I ate vermicelli, it was an ant climbing a tree.Sanmao told Jose that it was nylon thread for fishing, and the Chinese processed it to make it white and soft.Jose still didn't think so, but felt that Chinese dishes were full of variety.The third time I ate vermicelli, it was sandwiched in the "zygote cake" of the Northeast, with spinach and meat minced as a pie filling.This time, Jose thought that there were expensive shark fins in it.He also said that he would write a letter to China to thank his mother-in-law and ask her not to buy such expensive food again.

Sanmao likes cooking because she thinks it is an art and a kind of culture.But she doesn't like the life where the couple always eats every day and is busy earning food money at other times.Hexi always yells when he comes back from get off work: "Hurry up and eat, I'm going to starve to death." Sometimes Sanmao even feels aggrieved, having been loved by him for so many years in vain, this incomprehensible husband always lacks some warmth .There seems to be an insurmountable fence between them forever. This distance makes Sanmao feel at ease, and there are few. Sanmao knew the differences in language and customs before she decided to marry Jose.For her, this is a slight regret in life.If San Mao once said that her marriage with He Xi was really happy, then it was just a beautiful excuse.Although Jose cared for her more in life.But they can't talk about words, life, and ideals together.Jose's ignorance may be an advantage sometimes, but more often, Sanmao feels very sad.

What she expects is a man who can read her words, know her inner feelings, and share the secular fireworks with her.Jose couldn't afford those things, but gave her stability, freed her from the worries of her parents far away in China, and saved her from being alone.But after all, Sanmao is willing to live like no one else, no matter how complicated it is, she will leave a pure love for herself.Therefore, no matter who she has intersected with or how many twists and turns she has had, Sanmao is always free and lonely. Maybe Jose is not the most appropriate and suitable person in Sanmao's life.But it was this man who searched for her in the dusty and boundless desert.Holding hands with her, under the bleak setting sun, accompany her to indulge in the old dreams of the past life.He didn't need to understand the beautiful and sensitive feelings in her heart, and he didn't need to ask why her homesickness in her previous life was in the Sahara.All he had to do was to shield her from the wind and rain, and live and die together.

During that time, apart from cooking every day, Sanmao was writing articles.I vaguely remember that when I was young, my fragile emotions gave her too many injuries.She is the girl who hides behind the words and works silently. She only sows the cause and does not ask the result.It was Bai Xianyong who opened the door to the palace of literature for her back then, and then she spent a period of time dependent on poetry and books.If she hadn't been forced to travel far and wide because of emotion, perhaps at this time she was still writing her words in that Japanese-style house in Taipei with lowered eyebrows.

After ten years of ups and downs, looking back, I have traveled all over the landscape, and people have changed.The ever-changing natural scenery of the Sahara and the simple style of the Saharawi people make Sanmao eager to use a pen to record the mountains and rivers in this dream affectionately.On October 6, 1974, Sanmao's "Chinese Restaurant" was published in the supplement of Taiwan's United Daily News.This is the first work she has stopped writing for ten years, and it is also the first time she has used the pseudonym Sanmao. The editor-in-chief was Ping Xintao. Sanmao's mother once said that he was probably hypnotized by God.Because since the publication of this "Chinese Hotel", Sanmao has opened the door of writing again, and she has used amazing pens to fully present the mood in the desert.Let us see that there are so many thought-provoking and soul-stirring stories in that desolate and remote place full of flying sand all the year round.

Compared with the lush southern country, the years in the Sahara have too much blank space and too much ink.Sanmao expressed the scenery of the Sahara and the taste of the desert in words one by one, with ups and downs, but also calm and elegant.Readers who are immersed in the text always want to take a trip in person to see the endless Sahara desert and experience the desolate land. After Sanmao's "Self-made Family" was published, it once set off a wave.During that time, anywhere in Taipei, it seemed that one could hear people talking about who San Mao was.This unknown talented woman finally touched all living beings with her words.Perhaps only she knows how much hardship and bitterness are hidden behind all these glory.

Sanmao, who is far away in the desert, cannot see the beautiful aura bestowed on her by the world. "Thinking of China, I feel that it is a previous life, so far away from me, so far away." She still walks in the desert, lives in a simple hut, and leads a poor life.As for those gorgeous backgrounds, the letters from readers can only convey a touch of emotion and comfort. Carefully crafted works, heart-warming stories, and soul-stirring journeys are combined into one piece.Published in 1976, this is Sanmao's first book and also her masterpiece in this life.The following year, the two books were published, and these two books are Sanmao's enduring bestsellers.Afterwards, Sanmao's works have been difficult to reach the peak of these two works.It's not because she can't go beyond her own words, but because she can't go beyond that period of desert life. She allowed herself to go deep into the desert, experience the world and the world, and use the words exchanged with emotion and blood and tears to achieve the only beauty in her life.She walks in the long yellow sand, looking for the memory of the past life and the dream of this life.There are so many vicissitudes in the past, and the years are drifting away. It only takes a cup of tea to browse through it simply. Life is an unchangeable reincarnation, the bustling has just ended, and loneliness begins again.How many golden winds and jade dew encounters have become dim misses.Walking alone is just to find a place to settle down in the mortal world.I believe that this vast world and the mountains and rivers of compassion will give us a peaceful destination.