Chapter 2 mansion

mansion In my dream that day, I saw a big house in my old southern hometown, with blue bricks and black tiles, high white walls, and cracks in the eaves of ancient stone carvings, where strong pine trees and cacti grew.The light in the house is dim, and the wooden stairs are narrow and dilapidated.Rows of rooms are purely wooden structures. The walls, floors, doors, and windows are dark yellow boards that have been eroded by rain and mildew.There is a loft-style pointed skylight on the roof, called a dormer window.Swallows nested under the eaves, and black birds swooped swiftly and lowly from time to time.The bamboo poles by the window are full of all kinds of home-made clothes to dry.The sun is bright.The playful laughter of children passed through the long alley.

Such an old-style building used to be the residence of a wealthy family, but later it was occupied for public use, and it was filled with various families.Most families do not have separate kitchens and bathrooms.The toilet is placed in the bedroom, and in the shared kitchen, the coal stoves and gas stoves of every household are gathered together.Those houses, to me when I was a child, seemed magical and weird like a maze.The corridor is long and winding, the kitchen is dimly lit, and only a small glass window on the top can shine in the sun that is setting in the west.The rooms are separated by one room.Open a door, which is the bedroom or living room of someone else's house.The old-fashioned furniture and cabinets have a dull luster, the three-five table clock makes the sound of needles, and the cloth sofa is covered with hand-crocheted white cotton thread lace.Some houses have four-post iron beds covered with embroidered cloth awnings, like a cabin, very safe.

The houses are small and dense, and the public life is like a stage.All the families crowded together in the same space, cooking and washing, cleaning the toilet, husband and wife quarreling, children crying, all can be heard and seen clearly.The joys, sorrows and joys of each family, just like the content of their dinner, cannot be kept a secret.Life is simple, but the cleanliness and festiveness of the southern people, exudes a rich heat between the daily necessities, rice, oil and salt, and spends the four seasons of the small town peacefully every day. The wooden floor is mopped with clean water every day, and it gradually fades to grayish white.Meals are carefully selected and prepared.Men go out to work, women mend, cook and wash, and children play in groups.Flowers and plants are planted with care and prosperity. Morning glories climbing everywhere, fragrant honeysuckle, brilliant camellias and roses, impatiens and sunflowers bloom at the base of the wall.They are all sturdy flowers, adorning the dilapidated gates of ordinary courtyards.Someone planted lotus flowers in earthen vats. In summer, huge red flowers bloomed, full of fragrance, which was really shocking.The dark tanks used to store rainwater contained goldfish, fat and seductively raised, making no sound.

In autumn, there are white chrysanthemums blooming among the green leaves, and the blossoms are firm. I don’t know which family raises chrysanthemums so much.I played hide-and-seek with my friends, shuttled in the large damp yard, and only saw strange white flowers floating like shadows in the dim light, and the faint sunlight at the top of the slender petals jumped, which was the setting sun shining in from the west of the high wall.That scene remained in my heart, like the rubies and pearls in my chest unintentionally, shining brightly, but I didn't know it, and I was never frightened by this prosperous and magnificent heart.