Chapter 26 second quarter
To my father's annoyance, time messed up when it was cloudy or rainy.The darkness in the early morning is closer to dusk, and the warm sunshine in an autumn afternoon can make people mistakenly think that they are in the spring and bright April.Especially when you wake up, your brain is still in a state of absence, and the scenery around the pavilion prompts you to make an immediate judgment.
For countless nights, my father looked up at the vast stars in this small pavilion, and tried to name some stars with fixed positions.These names are varied, including flowers, animals, and even the names of family members or people he is familiar with.For example, on a certain page of the posthumous manuscript, my father wrote:
Baochen and the sow face each other across the river, among them are Jasmine, Ding Shuze, Yu (himself) and Goat Xing.Yu Chu is not very bright, and it is almost difficult to distinguish.Jasmine, goat, and dingshu are in the shape of a character.Baochen and Sow, one south and one north, are the brightest, crowning the stars.
In his posthumous manuscripts, the subtle feeling of time occupies a considerable space.In his view, the web of time woven by the alternation of time series, the blooming and dying of plants, the change of seasons, and the change of day and night, appears to be immutable on the surface, but actually depends on the very different feelings of each person.An hour, for example, which to a sleeper does not really exist, but to a woman in labor lasts forever.However, if sleep has a dream during this hour, the situation is different.Father wrote:
Today's dream is long and endless.What you see in your dream is different from this world.Past life?Afterlife?Taoyuan?Puji?When I woke up, I was shocked, and sadness came from it, and I didn't feel tears.
When he was watching the shadow of the tree on the wall, time seemed to be frozen, it "moved an inch, like a hundred years", and he only took a nap on the stone table, "Er Dusk leaped to , the dark colors are all together, the clothes are exposed, and I don't know what night it is."
In addition to the observation of astrology and time records, there are a large number of miscellaneous notes, poems, songs and prose written by hand in the book, which make people unclear.The posthumous manuscript was finally written on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the third year of Guangxu.The last few lines of small characters written by my father:
It snowed heavily at night.Time is mixed, like a spider's thread.Nai He, Nai He.
Between the gazebo and the opposite courtyard wall, there is a small piece of wasteland, which my father once turned into a flower garden.But now it has been reclaimed by magpies, and there is a row of onions and garlic and a row of leeks.Only a pedestal under the shade of the tree is still in its original position.Although the wooden frame is still in good condition, the vines have long since died, and the vines are hanging in it, moving with the wind.
Almost every day at noon, magpies would come to the backyard to pick onions and garlic.Whenever she squatted down, she would look up in the direction of the pavilion.If Xiumi happened to be looking at her, the magpie would surely smile.She has a ruddy complexion and walks very fast, gusts of wind come and go.Like a shadow flickering, it seems to be always running.In addition to pinching onions, digging garlic, and fetching firewood from the firewood house, sometimes she would come to the attic to help her clean the room, or send her flower seeds and flower seeds bought at the market.
Whenever dusk comes and the setting sun moves over the west wall, making the antler grass and kudzu vines on the courtyard wall red, Xiumi will come down from the attic and disappear among the verges, bamboo forests and firewood houses.The steps of the courtyard have not been cleaned. After the rain, rotted leaves are piled up all over the ground, and there are green moss everywhere, green and quiet.
After the pot lotus bloomed, Xiumi thought of Qiuju, but unfortunately, after looking around, she only found a few clumps of wild chrysanthemums in the corner of the fence.Single leaf, small and dense flower buds, pale white or light yellow in color, just like jasmine, without fragrance.Xiumi once carefully dug out a clump, moved it into a clay pot, cared for it carefully, and placed it in a shaded place under the attic, and it died within a few days.But the genus Malan, Tianzhu, Ancao, Eupatorium, and Artemisia can be seen everywhere in the courtyard.In Wang Shimao's "Hundred Flowers Collection", they are called Chaiju, Guanyinju, Hydrangea, and Haierju. Although they have the name of chrysanthemums, they are not really chrysanthemums.And in late autumn, there are already no flowers.Surrounded by people every day, besides the big red pomegranate, two sweet-scented osmanthus, and a cluster of cockscombs in the courtyard, the row of impatiens outside the firewood house on the east wall is the most colorful blooming. .
This row of impatiens has not been maintained all year round, the red rhizomes are exposed, and the leaves have been pecked by chickens like sawtooth, looking like they are dying.The loess was collected from Xiumi, mixed with fine sand, cultivated and spread under the flowers, and the rice water, chicken manure, bean cake fertile root, and lime water were used to kill earthworms. After about a month of tossing, until the golden wind brought coolness, When the autumn frost first falls, the leaves turn from yellow to green.After a cold rain, flowers bloomed.Red and purple are diverse, fresh and graceful.At first it was a single flower, sparse and unremarkable. Xiumi pinched off the small buds of the residual flowers every evening, and inserted bamboos to support the stamens, and the flowers gradually became denser.
In those days, Xiumi squatted under the silk for half a day.Crazy and horrified, thoughtful.On the day of Bailu, Xiumi drank a few more cups of strong tea, tossing and turning on the bed unable to sleep.In the middle of the night, I simply put on my clothes and went downstairs to take out the lamp to have a look.In the night wind, the flowers and branches trembled slightly, and there was a little bit of cold dew.And beside the wall under the green stem Zhurui is a world infested with insects.Flying flies, Zhizhi, Huadajie, spiders, and golden wings wandered among them, fluttering their wings, and it was very lively.Xiumi quickly became obsessed with these little bugs.There is also a scarab, lying on the back of its partner, climbing up the flower stalk.And countless ants carry a huge petal, stop and go, like a long queue of mourners carrying wreaths.
Although the world of insects is isolated, it is the same as the human world, with everything available.If a diving insect is blocked by falling flowers all over the place, will it stray into Taoyuan like the fishermen in Wulingyuan?
She felt that she was an ant lost among the flowers.Everything in life is humble, trivial and meaningless, but it cannot be ignored or forgotten.
Xiumi remembers that when she was a child, she often saw Cuilian taking impatiens flowers in a clay bowl, adding a little alum, mashing them into a slurry, leaning on a chair against the wall, crossing her legs, and dyeing her nails.While dyeing his nails, he said to the magpie: "You wash the dishes today, my hands are stained and I can't get in the water."
She remembered that her mother called the impatiens flower "impatient", because it set seeds after frost, and the fruit was like a green plum. When you peeled it, the black seeds jumped violently, and the skin curled up like a fist.Her mother used to clip leather rolls around her ears as earrings, one on each ear.She heard her mother say, "This is your dowry." She could even feel the warm air blowing against her ear when her mother spoke, which made her itch.
She still remembers that when the autumn dew grows thicker and the petals are about to fall, the sixth master Tang, a doctor in the village, will come to harvest the flowers and seeds, make wine and prepare medicine.According to Tang Liushi, the medicine made from dried Impatiens can cure dystocia and diphtheria.And her father was dismissive of the medicinal effect of impatiens.He believed that the quack doctors of all dynasties had been fooled by Li Shizhen.Because it is said that Tang Liushi's wife died of dystocia.
She remembered that her teacher Ding Shuze also had a phoenix in his family.But instead of growing at the root of the wall, it is planted in a pot.Whenever the flowers bloom, his cloudy eyes are a little demented.My husband said that the Impatiens flower is soft and soft, as beautiful as peaches and plums. Although it is beautiful, it can be biased towards a corner, blooms and perishes on its own, does not make publicity, and does not attract bees and butterflies. Therefore, it is always a lady...
That's it, that's it.
All these past events, Xiumi thought she had never experienced and never remembered, but now they flooded into her mind one by one.It turned out that these most common trifles are so kind and touching in my memory, which cannot be disputed.One thing leads to another, endlessly, unfathomably deep.Moreover, she didn't know which small moment would touch her soft heart, make her blush and pant, and tears flow.Just like the charcoal being cooled by the hearth in winter, you don't know which one to pick that will burn your hands.
After autumn, the number of visitors at home gradually increased.Some of these people were wearing long robes and mandarin jackets, and they kept bowing and bowing as soon as they saw them;There are Wubians with guns, scribes with civilized sticks, most of whom are accompanied by followers; there are also beggars with tattered clothes and straw hats to cover their faces.Xiumi never saw any of these visitors.
The magpie was busy passing notes for them.Usually, when visitors see Xiumi's reply, most of them sigh and shake their heads, and leave disappointed.
There were also those who were unwilling to give up, and repeatedly let the magpies go in to spread the word, but after that, Xiumi stopped answering.The guests waited for the tea to cool down until dark, so they had no choice but to leave angrily.
At the beginning, the magpie gave up his tea seat and treated him like a guest.When the guests left, they also acted modestly and sent them out of the house.Seeing that Xiumi would not think about food and drink for a few days after the guests left, she would be sad, and even shed tears, the magpie felt a layer of disdain and hatred for those visitors.Later, she gradually lost patience.Whenever anyone came, the magpies didn't report them, and immediately told her that "the master is not here", they all stood in the way for her, even pushed and shoved them out of the house.
Magpies don't know where these people come from?Why do you want to see the master?And why didn't Xiumi ask the identity of the visitors, and why didn't they disappear?Take this matter to Mr.
Ding Shu said: "Most of these visitors are Xiumi's old acquaintances. Before 1911, there were many round-trips with your master. After the failure of the second revolution, Yuan Shikai became a hero for the rest of his life, and the southern party politicians scattered one after another, or took refuge in Peiping. , or find another way out. Some people have achieved great success and become governors, staff officers, and commanders, while others have fallen into the rivers and lakes. There are those who return to their hometowns in full clothes, ostentatiously, and look down upon themselves. There are also people who stop by to visit purely out of personal friendship and old friendship, without any clear purpose. Of course, maybe these are all excuses. It's just Mi's beauty."
"Do you really think Xiumi is beautiful?" Magpie asked curiously.
"To be honest, Xiumi's beauty is the only one I've ever seen in my life. Although she stays out of the house and doesn't care about world affairs, she still attracts so many wandering bees and butterflies." Having said this, the gentleman secretly glanced at the magpie again. With a glance, he grabbed one of her hands, patted it in the palm of his hand, and said in a low voice, "However, you look pretty good..."
In the early winter, with a heavy snow coming quietly, a middle-aged man wearing a felt hat came to Puji after inquiring all the way.He looked forty or fifty years old, with beards all over his face, and snow all over his head.He was wearing a short jacket, the shoulders were frayed, and the cotton wool was exposed, but his lower body was wearing single pants and shoes.All the buttons of the cotton-padded jacket were gone, but a strip of white cloth was roughly tied around the waist.The man was a little lame when he walked, and he was carrying a broken cattail bag in his hand.As soon as he enters the door, he yells for Soo-mi to come out and talk to him.While stomping his feet, breathing heavily, he used this to keep warm from the cold.Magpie repeated his old tricks and sent him out after a few words.Unexpectedly, before the magpie finished speaking, the man stared at the bull's eyes and said to the magpie in a low voice: "You just need to tell her that I have six fingers on my left hand, and she will come out to see me."
Seeing what he said, the magpie had no choice but to go to the backyard.
Xiumi was putting the freshly cut wintersweet into the bottle, and a strong fragrance lingered in the dark room.Magpie said what the man wanted her to say.Xiumi acted as if she didn't hear it, she was still inserting her plum blossoms.She picked up the wintersweet buds that fell on the table one by one, and put them in a bowl filled with clear water.The magpie looked at the flowers floating in the water like golden bells, and didn't know what to do for a while.
After a while, she came to the front yard and had to make up a set of words to reply to him: "My master is not in good health, and it is inconvenient to see guests. You should go back."
When the man heard this, his beard trembled with anger: "What? She won't come out to see me? She won't even see me? Go and tell her again, I'm a little donkey, a little donkey."
The magpie went upstairs again and told the truth.Xiumi seemed to be even less interested in donkeys and horses.She just glanced at the magpie without saying a word.Not long after, the magpie came downstairs and shook his head at the visitor without saying a word.She thought that this reckless and impatient middle-aged man would fly into a rage and curse endlessly.Unexpectedly, this person lost his temper at this time.He threw the cattail bag in his hand on the ground, touched his scalp, and stood there for a long time.After a long time, the man reached into the cotton-padded jacket, took out something wrapped in a handkerchief tremblingly, handed it to the magpie, and said with a smile: "Since your master is inconvenient to see me, I will take my leave." Please give this thing to her. It’s the Republic of China now, and it’s useless for me to keep this unlucky thing. Leave it to your master. In case of emergency, you can sell some silver for use.”
The magpie took the thing and ran to the attic.Xiumi was using a sewing needle to pick apart the pistils of wintersweet one by one, pursing her lips with a half-smile.Magpie didn't say a word either, so he put these things on the table and went downstairs by himself.Unexpectedly, as soon as she arrived downstairs, Xiumi chased her downstairs holding the handkerchief.When the two of them came to the hall, the middle-aged man had already left.
Magpie shook the cattail bag away, and found that inside were two dried fish, a piece of bacon, and a few winter bamboo shoots.Xiumi stood on the threshold and looked out of the house, but the snow had fallen heavily, and the man was not even a shadow in the snowstorm.
Wrapped in the handkerchief was a golden cicada, exactly like the one buried in Little Thing's grave.It turns out that there are such exactly the same things in the world!Magpie thought to himself.The existence of Jin Chan made her feel the mystery and vastness of this world.It turned out that all the doors in this world were closed to her alone, and she knew neither the reason nor the end.Like her master's silence.
Who is this middle-aged man?Where did it come from?What happened to Jin Chan?Why did Xiumi cry when she saw it?Why did she not be a good official lady, but what kind of revolution was she going to do?Needless to say, she couldn't enter Xiumi's world at all, and she couldn't even touch it.It seems that everyone is surrounded by something, and Magpie feels the same for himself.When she tried to break out of this closed world, it was like a drop of water falling on a red-hot soldering iron, and it melted with a "thorn".It was snowing heavily outside the house, and those flakes seemed to disdain to answer her question.
At that time, the magpie could already recognize some characters. In the words of her teacher Ding Shuze, she could already be regarded as half a "scholar".In the past, she dealt with pigs, chickens, geese, and ducks every day, and traveled between markets, cloth shops, and grain stores. She never felt dissatisfied. coming.
Xiumi came to the front yard more and more often.When she was cooking, Xiumi came to help her light the fire, and when she went to feed the pigs, she followed her to watch.In the winter of this year, the sow gave birth to another litter of piglets. Xiumi and she held a lantern and guarded the stinking pigsty for a whole night.Whenever a piglet was born, the magpie laughed, and she laughed too.It seems that she likes these little animals very much.In order not to hurt its tender skin, Xiumi soaked a towel in hot water and wrung it dry to wipe off the blood.She also held the piglet in her arms like a baby and put it to sleep.
Xiumi is used to washing her own clothes, cleaning the house, and emptying the toilet by herself.She learned how to grow vegetables, sieve rice, make rice cakes, cut out shoe patterns, clean shoe soles, and even recognize male and female chickens at a glance.But just can't speak.
Once, the magpie went to the market and didn't come back until dark.She was surprised to find that Xiumi cooked a pot of rice for her and waited for her under the lamp.Soot all over his face.Although the rice was a bit mushy and too much salt was added to the dish, in order to show her gratitude, she ate desperately with tears in her eyes, almost bursting her stomach.In the evening, Xiumi rushed to wash the pot again, and finally the spatula shoveled a hole out of the iron pot.
Gradually, she felt that Xiumi got a little fatter and her face became ruddy again.She always stares at the magpie when she has nothing to do, with a smile on her face.Just can't talk.Since she was released from prison, she has never stepped out of this yard.Hua Erniang's son married a daughter-in-law in the twelfth lunar month, and sent people over and over again to invite her to the wedding wine, but she just laughed.
On winter nights, when there was nothing to do, the two of them would do needlework in the hall with the lamp turned off.The north wind was blowing outside the house, and the fire in the house was burning vigorously.The two of them occasionally looked at each other and smiled, so quiet that even the sound of snowflakes falling on the window paper could be heard.Magpie looked at the snow that was accumulating thicker and thicker outside the window, and thought blankly, if she was not dumb and could talk, that would be great.As long as Xiumi is willing, she can stay with her until dawn.She has many, many things to tell her.Think like this.The magpie's heart suddenly moved, and he came up with a bold idea.She has also studied with Mr. Ding for almost half a year, and she can write a lot of words herself, why don't you try to write down what you want to say on paper and talk to her.If she writes something wrong, Xiumi can also correct it for her.In this way, you can learn faster.She sneaked a glance at Xiumi, her face flushed from the suffocation.Xiumi noticed that she was blushing, so she raised her head to look at her, her eyes were clearly asking.
She was excited all night by the idea.It lasted until the afternoon of the next day, when she finally couldn't hold back anymore, she gritted her teeth, stomped her feet, took a deep breath, ran to Xiumi's attic, and wrote a line of herself on the tracing paper. Write it to her.
The line written by Magpie reads:
What would you like to eat tonight?This word is written by myself.
Xiumi stared blankly.She stared blankly at the magpie, as if she couldn't believe that she could write.She grinded the ink, took out the pen, and turned her head to look at her again.Afterwards, Xiumi seriously wrote a word to answer her.When the magpie saw this word, its head "buzzed" and it got bigger.She took the paper and went back to her room, but no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't recognize the word.
She was a little angry, she felt that Xiumi wrote a difficult word to make things difficult for her, and decided that Xiumi was deliberately teasing her, and the purpose was to laugh at herself.There are many strokes in this word, and it is full of teeth and claws.Ghosts can recognize it!Maybe even Mr. Ding didn't recognize him.
When she showed the words written by Xiumi to her husband, Ding Shu pulled out the tickle from the back collar, hit her hard on the head, and shouted:
"Why don't you recognize this word? Papaya! This is 'porridge'."
From then on, in order to learn how to read, Xiumi and Magpie started talking on paper.Xiumi corrected all sentences that had typos, typos and sentences that were not grammatical for her.They talked about everyday things: crops, food, gardening, growing vegetables, and of course going to the market.Later, their written talks went beyond this scope and contained some brand new content.for example:
"It's snowing again today."
"yes."
"The daughter-in-law who just passed the door next door has pockmarks on her face."
"yes?"
"yes."
"Mr. Ding is sick again, with a hole in his back."
"Oh."
This is mostly due to boredom.In the depths of winter, when the days are short and the nights are long, magpies can't survive the loneliness, so they always have to find some words to break the boredom.However, Xiumi's reply is usually very short, just one or two words perfunctory.Sometimes, Xiumi would initiate a conversation with her, such as: "Do you know where I can get a wintersweet?" She just loves flowers.In winter, when the flowers are withered, the grass is dead, and the snow is so heavy, where can I get wintersweet for her?
Being able to talk with a pen makes the magpie feel happy, which is somewhat mysterious.However, she soon discovered that in the days when the two of them were together day and night, there were not many times when they really needed to talk.What is easier than talking is the eyes. Sometimes, two people can understand each other's mind immediately just by looking at each other.
On the night of New Year's Eve, when the snow was still falling, Xiumi and Magpie finished making dumplings in the kitchen. The two of them went to Magpie's room, lit a pot of charcoal fire, and huddled together on the same bed to sleep.The north wind howled outside, but inside the house was warm.The dim flames licked the wall, and the magpie touched her body for the first time.She feels that Xiumi is now like a baby who needs her care and protection, and her heart is at ease and peaceful.It was too hot in the room, and the two of them were huddled in the quilt without moving, and the magpie soon sweated. Fortunately, there was a small crack in the skylight on the roof, and a chill of ice and snow penetrated into the room. Swim back and forth in front of the nose.
In the middle of the night, people outside the house had set off firecrackers for the New Year's Eve, but the magpie still didn't fall asleep.At this moment, she suddenly felt Xiumi's toes gently rub against her arm.At first she thought that the other party was unintentional, so she didn't take it seriously.But not long after, Xiumi hooked her with her toe again.What does it mean?
"Aren't you asleep yet?" Magpie asked tentatively.
Unexpectedly, after she asked such a question, Xiumi simply lifted the quilt and crawled to her side.The two lay side by side, and the magpie's heart was pounding.The charcoal fire in the basin crackled, and the dense snow particles fell on the tiles of the roof, rustling like rain.In the dark, she felt Xiumi crying, so she reached out and touched her face, which was wet.Xiumi also touched her face.Afterwards, the magpie gently turned her head and pressed her into his arms.
It was the first time that Magpie saw Xiumi cry since she was released from prison.She huddled in her arms, trembling from crying, she patted Xiumi's shoulder lightly, and the latter also gradually calmed down, and slowly fell asleep.But the magpie still didn't fall asleep.Xiumi's head made her shoulders numb, and her long hair made her nose itch, but the magpie remained motionless.Just now, when Xiumi touched her face, Magpie felt a strange and complicated sweetness, and felt that a deep, deep part of her heart had been touched.It was an emotion she had never felt before.She didn't realize how hot her face was until one or two snowdrops from the roof fell on her face.
When Magpie woke up the next morning, she found that Xiumi was already busy under the stove.She got dressed and walked into the kitchen. Xiumi was wearing a sarong around her waist, smiling at her with her head tilted.Her smile is also different from before.The magpie's heart was full of tides, and he opened his mouth, only to feel dizzy before his eyes.
well!The magpie sighed, and said in his heart: What's going on here?
On New Year's Day, the two of them didn't talk much, but they always got together.Wherever Xiumi went, the magpie followed.And vice versa.Sometimes, one is in the front yard and the other is in the back yard, but after a while the two of them somehow sit together.
Soon, three years have passed.
In the evening of this day, when it was raining, a burst of spring thunder suddenly rolled across the sky, and Xiumi excitedly copied a poem for her to read.It says: There is thunder outside Furongtang.
At this time, the magpie can already read some characters.Although she didn't know that it was written by Li Yishan, she knew that it was a poem, something made up by scholars who had nothing to do when they were full, and she also knew that hibiscus is a lotus flower.She took the piece of paper, looked left and right, horizontally and vertically, and slowly figured out the smell.Although there are no lotus flowers in the pond outside the door, and there are quite a few ducks that are shedding their feathers, the thunder in the sky is not fake at all.Such an ordinary sentence may seem commonplace, but when you think about it carefully, it really has a little meaning.The more she thought about it, the more she liked it, and gradually felt that there was a little bit of coolness in the air, and she sighed unconsciously, it turns out that the scholars in this world are not all idiots, they recite poems and compose Fu all day long, and it turns out that there are some good meanings hidden in them.
So the magpie quietly asked Xiumi if he could teach her how to compose poetry.At first, Xiumi just ignored her, but she couldn't resist her pressure. After thinking about it, she had to write a poem and asked her to follow suit.
Apricot blossoms in spring and rain in the south of the Yangtze River.
When the magpie saw it, it was like a treasure.Take this page of paper, go back to your own room, and go to study body odor alone.Looking at this sentence makes people feel comfortable, Magpie thought.Apricot blossoms are common in the village, and there is one in front of Granny Meng's house.As for the spring rain, after the stinging sting, it rains and rains every day, and it just doesn't end.As for Jiangnan, let alone the Puji and Meicheng areas.But putting these three things together, the meaning seems to be different immediately, like a painting, but you can think about it or not.Miaozai Miaozai, huh, huh, it turns out that writing poetry is so simple.She felt that she could write such a poem by herself, just find a few things and put them together.
Magpie lay on the bed and thought about it all night, until his head and brain were separated, and he sat up again in his clothes, scolding himself as a lunatic, while thinking hard under the lamp.In the middle of the night, I managed to make up a sentence, and counted, but there was one extra word.Magpie is written, rooster hen and eggs.Although she erased the word "he" later, it still feels disgusting no matter how you look at it.She didn't feel good at all.Other people's poems are elegant and refreshing, but what about my own?A faint smell of chicken excrement could be smelled.
After that, the magpie felt sleepy and fell asleep on the dressing table.She had a dream.A rooster, a hen, clucking and clucking.Needless to say, the hen also laid an egg.This dream of hers was heavy and long.By the time she woke up from the table, it was already early morning the next day.The table is full of lamp ashes, the room is full of morning light, and the whole body is cool.
She found that there was an extra white porcelain bowl on the table, and there were a few newly picked red bayberries in it.Only then did I know that Xiumi had come quietly at night.Since she is here, why doesn't she wake me up?Magpie picked up a red bayberry, put it in his mouth, and then looked at the rooster poem he wrote on the table, and his face turned red.When her face was hot and her ears were hot, she really thought of a good sentence.Probably because she was worried that this sentence would fly away from her mind like a bird, Magpie quickly studied the ink and wrote it down.Before the ink was dry, I showed it to Xiumi.But she was nowhere to be seen in the yard, shouting and yelling, and finally found her under the shelf under the attic.The shelves are full of flowers, at least thirty or forty pots.Xiumi was wearing gloves and holding a pair of scissors, trimming flowers and leaves.Magpie showed her the poem she wrote. Xiumi was taken aback for a moment, then looked up at Magpie, as if she didn't believe that the poem was written by her:
That night, Xiumi found her a copy of "Li Yishan Collection" from the attic. This book is one of the few original block editions in her father's old collection. Batch and write down the words and sentences at will.However, for the current magpies, Li Shangyin's poems are obviously still too difficult.For a while, Eluhua comes, and Dulanxiang goes for a while, and most of the articles are incomprehensible.When the summer heat comes, magpies come and lie on the bamboo couches, flipping through them at will, picking out some sentences about rain and snow to read, such as "the red building looks cold across the rain" and "the snow mountain has not returned to heaven". , What "one spring dream rains often floating tiles", although I don't understand what the old man said, it can be used to kill summer heat and summer.
One night, it was raining heavily outside the house.When Magpie was flipping through this collection of poems, he found that there was a line in one of the poems, "Golden Toad bites the lock and burns incense". For some reason, the master of the Lu family circled two dots under "Golden Toad".Toad, probably toad, why did he circle these two words?Looking again, there is the following note on the margin of the page:
golden cicada.
Even though women are chaste and strong, there is no one who cannot enter.
Who is Zhang Jiyuan?
Seeing this, the magpie couldn't help being startled.Originally Li Shangyin's original poem, the magpie didn't know the general idea, what is "Golden toad bites the lock and burns incense"?Looking at the old master's comment again, "although women are chaste and strong, there are no women who cannot enter", it seems to be the old master's commentary on the original poem. Although it is absurd, it is connected with "Jin Chan" and "Zhang Jiyuan" for no reason .According to Magpie's memory, Zhang Jiyuan came to Puji after the master of the Lu family went mad and ran away. Then, how did he know about this person?Could it be that they knew each other before?In addition, what is the "golden cicada"? Although the word "Jinchan" comes from "Jinchan", when the magpie thought of the cicada that the little thing brought to the grave, and the gift from the mysterious visitor a few years ago, the magpie couldn't help but shudder. cold.
At this time, there was lightning and thunder outside the house, and the lights inside the house were like beans, and shadows flickered around.Could it be that Master Lu's madness has anything to do with Zhang Jiyuan?Magpie didn't dare to think about it anymore, as if she felt that the old man was right behind her.She closed the book, not wanting to look at it any more, and shivered by the table alone in a daze.When the rain subsided, she quickly grabbed the book and ran to the backyard to find Xiumi.
Xiumi is not asleep yet.She was sitting at the table, staring blankly at Wake in a daze.The magpie has been using it to pickle pickles. After Xiumi returned from prison, she washed it and took it to the attic.Her face was green, and her eyes looked strange.Magpie turned to this page of the poetry anthology and pointed it out to her.Xiumi took it and glanced at it absent-mindedly, then closed the book and threw it aside.There was a cold look of resentment in his eyes.
Her eyes were still fixed on the clay pot.She tapped the cauldron lightly with her fingers, and put her ear to listen carefully.On a lonely rainy night, the sound rippled round and round, like the bells of a temple.She played the clay pot over and over again, tears streaming down her face, messing up the thick white powder on her face.Then, she raised her head again, and smiled at the magpie like a child.
At this moment, Magpie felt that she had turned back to the original Xiumi.
In recent years, magpies have been visiting Mr. Ding's house less frequently.However, during the four seasons and eight seasons, the magpies would visit occasionally, and the eggs that my husband likes to eat were picked and delivered on a monthly basis, and there was never a shortage of one.Ding Shu naturally had nothing to say.The teacher's wife came home to call her every now and then.Every time, she came on tiptoe in a hurry, and said, "Hurry up, your husband is about to die".Every time Magpie went to visit him, he would see Mr. humming the opera on the bed.However, in November of this year, Mr. Ding really failed.As usual, it was the teacher's mother who came to report the letter. She only said one sentence, that dead ghost,...and burst into tears.
Ding Shu was lying on his back on the bamboo bed, his stomach swollen like a drum, and the room was full of people.Sixth Master Langzhong, Hua Erniang, Granny Meng, and two relatives who came from other places all stood beside the bed, waiting for Mr. Ding to breathe his last breath without saying a word.I heard from the teacher's wife that since the husband fell into ambush, he hasn't defecated in a decent way.The prescription given by the doctor of the sixth master is to make soup with reed root, lotus leaf and rhubarb. After taking it for seven or eight days, it still doesn't work.Mr. Ding panted for a while, kicked his legs for a while, with his eyes half-closed, and tossed and tossed from noon until dark.In the end, even the teacher's wife couldn't see it anymore, she shed tears, leaned down and shouted to the husband:
"Shuze, you can go away. What's the use of standing up like this. If you walk ahead of me, at least someone will die for you. If I die, there will be no one around me."
When she yelled, the husband obediently remained motionless.However, he still raised his bony hand and patted the bed sheet three times tremblingly.When he shot this, everyone in the room looked at each other in blank dismay, not knowing what it meant.It was still the teacher who understood him, so she lifted the bed sheet, took out a piece of raw paper from under the bed, opened it, and Granny Meng took it over and looked at it, saying:
"It turned out to be the epitaph written by Mr. Ding himself."
Erniang Hua smiled and said, "Thanks to Mr. Ding's thoughtfulness, there is no one else who can write the epitaph except Mr. Ding."
Sixth Master Tang said with a half-smile, "There are plenty of people who write epitaphs, but, in my opinion, Mr. Ding is worried about letting others write for him. He has written epitaphs for others all his life. Don't pretend to be an outsider."
Everyone just talked about it, but the teacher's wife had already started crying on her husband's body.The Sixth Master went over to take his pulse and said after a while, "It's cold."
Mr. Ding Shuze passed away at the age of eighty-seven, so the funeral has an atmosphere of joy.Although the teacher's wife cried to death, the word "money" was always inseparable from each other.The squires of Puji paid for his birthday materials, built a stele and erected a tomb, and invited monks to chant scriptures and Taoist priests to recall his soul.It just so happened that an opera troupe from Huizhou was passing by, so the good-for-nothing invited them to come and sing opera in the village for three days in a row.Sack-clothed fortune tellers and Feng Shui masters also came upon hearing the news, and the neighbors also contributed money and goods. The funeral was lively and decent, and more than 30 tables were set up for the banquet.
Granny Meng said to the magpie, you have officially worshiped as a teacher. You will be a teacher for one day and a father for life. This disciple's gift cannot be vague.When the teacher's wife heard this, she immediately took the conversation away and added: "It stands to reason that Xiumi has also formally worshiped the teacher." Hua Erniang replied: "She is dumb, what do you care about with her?" So the magpie followed Meng The mother-in-law and Hua Erniang even help out at Ding's house all day long, from dawn to dusk.
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