Mrs. Symson was Chinese.Her third husband was an Englishman named Thomson, but he forbade her to use his surname and gave her a similar one.From the biologist's point of view Mrs Symson has been married many times, but from the lawyer's point of view she has never been married. Mrs Symson was well past sixty when I first met her.That day, in the evening, I went to the theater to buy tickets. The afternoon concert had not yet ended, and the golden drums were beating inside, and the long and heavy symphony was reaching its final climax. It seems that for a while, the sky is dark and the earth is dark.It seems that there are hundreds of trains, whining and blowing their steam, driving at full horsepower, all rushing towards this side, the cars are full of people waving flags and shouting, fireworks are set off in the sky, fireworks are flying on the ground, I don’t know what to celebrate, I am happy something.Joy to the extreme, there is also a kind of ferocious sorrow, the strings of the forest are tightly twisted, twisted, twisted like a twist, many forests are intertwined, squeezed, and rush down the sorrow of the ages ; flowed into the music's generalization, and then messed up - at the end of the composition, the composer thought he was crazy, there was no tune at all, and he just dumped individual small notes into a giant bucket with a clang, and the next Stirring vigorously, it only caused the sky to collapse and the earth to collapse, deafening.

This piece of noise expanded without limit, and finally burst, creating another realm in the tiny cracks.In a trance, in a dream, condescending, I can only see a small alley below, and two street lamps are lighted sparsely, the black ones are the facades of the two, and the yellow ones are the facades of the other two.There was nothing in the alley, and the wind in the middle of the night returned and swept away for no reason.Someone was blowing the bugle desolately behind the house, it seemed to be in the alley, but it seemed to be far away. The string is in a hurry again, and the cymbal is tight again.I bought the tickets for the night show, turned around and was about to leave. Across the black and white marble floor, in the dim red light, I saw the velvet curtain move and two people came out from afar.One I recognized as my second cousin, the other didn't look carefully, I only knew that she was wearing a cloak with a leather collar.Inside the arena, the grand symphony was still going on violently. In comparison, the outside seemed more silent, and the two people outside the curtain seemed extremely small.

I went up to say hello and said with a smile, "I didn't expect my second aunt to be happy to hear this!" The second cousin laughed and said, "I would never have thought of coming here myself. Mrs. Symson was sent her two A ticket, she invited me to go with her, I don't care anyway, just come together." I said, "Second aunt isn't going to finish listening to it?" The second cousin said, "Mrs. Symson is going to doze off. We It's boring to think about it, so let's go a step earlier." Mrs. Symson laughed and said, "I've been tricked, I only thought there was dancing! I knew it would be like this—" As he was speaking, the boy in uniform pulled away Passing through the glass door, a man strode in. Mrs. Symson exclaimed, "Is that Dr. Lu?" and rushed to meet him.The second cousin smiled at me quietly: "Look! I ran into him again! It was he who gave her the two tickets. Now we slipped out after listening to it halfway. It's so embarrassing!" The man really asked Said: "Mrs. Symson, are you going back now?" Mrs. Symson took both of his hands, shook them again and again, and said with a smile:

"Where am I willing to go? But my friend can't sit still - don't blame her, I don't understand it, so I can't help but feel a little panicked. Originally, how many people really understand music?" Er Biao My aunt glanced at me and smiled. I did not see Mrs Symson again for a long time.Later I went to her house once.She rented a big room in someone else's house and lived in it. It was not very bright, and there were half-new and old black lacquered wooden tables, chests of drawers, and cupboards around.On the cupboard, in the glass case, there is a small Amitabha Buddha painted in gold.The round table in the middle is covered with a white lace tablecloth, and there is a large orange-red carved bowl in the shape of a clam shell, and a handful of snap buttons and removed soft satin buttons are placed in the bowl.On the wall are photos of her in her prime; the Ascension of Jesus statue; Western paintings bought from the Beauty Monthly Shop on Four Avenues, depicting still lifes, Korisa wine bottles and apples, some in the basket and some outside the basket .There were pictures of naked fat kids all over the place—her sons and daughters, her grandsons and grandchildren.

She specially opened the box and took out the photo album, which contained single portraits of her husbands, but they never took a photo with her, presumably for fear that she would blackmail them.We also saw the wedding photos of her eldest daughter, the wedding photos of her younger daughter, and the photos of her older daughter getting married again after divorce.Photos are nothing but broken shells of life; the years have passed, and the melon seeds have been swallowed one by one, and everyone knows the taste, and the only thing left for everyone to see is the messy black and white melon seed shells.

Mrs Symson herself has the most photographs.From the time when she was fourteen years old when she went to the city, she gradually learned to wink at the camera.After middle age, she likes to take pictures with her daughter, because everyone says they are like sisters.All the photographer had to say, and she ordered him to print a dozen more prints. Mrs Symson was less photographed in her later years, and looked twenty years younger than her real age.Her hair was dyed, and she was combed low into a jet-black double heart bun. Although the physique is not beautiful, it is still good enough to quote Lao She's praise of Western women:

"Arms are arms, legs are legs." She also kept her skin as smooth as before. She said that it was because she ate pearl powder when she was a child. contradiction.Mrs. Symson's words were mostly unreliable, but the lies she made up were so far removed from the truth that she might occasionally run head-on into the truth when she went too far, "on the other hand." Mrs. Symson locked the photo album back into the box and sighed: "Since I dried my clothes in the dog days this year, I haven't put the box away yet. How can I carry it by myself? I am old and my children are not around." You know it’s hard work!” I felt it was my duty to volunteer, so I volunteered to help her carry it.She dragged out seven or eight golden lacquer cages, large and small, from under the bed. While moving them, she giggled at me and said, "You'll have to find a massager to push and push for you tomorrow—I'm afraid it will hurt your muscles and bones!"

She climbed up and down, and squatted on the top of the cabinet to pick up and pass things. I couldn't help but sweat, but she was really nimble, steady and agile.Her ankles are red and white leather, and she is wearing a pair of vermilion leather slippers.She jumped down like a big cat, opened the other box, bent over and reached in to find it, and asked me to hold the lid of the box for her.Her head suddenly got into my armpit, and then moved away mysteriously.Her face and neck smelled faintly, not grease, not perfume, more soapy than soapy, the smell of a well-washed animal.People are all animals, but no one is so definitely an animal as she is.

She was busy, breathing in hissingly through her teeth, as if very cold.It was only autumn, but her whistling breath gave off a chilly feeling. ... Maybe she was old after all. The boxes were stacked up one by one, and she said, "Don't hurry away, I'll feed you below." After saying that, she dragged out two big rattan baskets.After we carried the rattan basket over, she said again: "There is nothing to treat you, just two bowls of noodles!" I said: "Thank you, I should go. I have interrupted you for a long time!" The next day, outside Hartung Gardens, I met her again, and we had a conversation standing under the wall.With a net bag on her arm, she went to the street to buy canned food for her children.

Her sons and daughters all took her surname Symson, so they all joined the British nationality. Although they were beautiful at first, they were all sent to concentration camps after the accident, leaving Mrs. Symson alone to spend time outside, sending some sand every month. Canned sugar, meat and fruit are sent to them separately.She raised her eyebrows and said, "Sending these five parcels every month, why don't I ruin my entire family? If you don't send it, you can't do it. If you want to send it, you can't miss any one. First, they are all my own, with ten fingers. It hurts to bite. Secondly, the children will also be paranoid. Raising children to guard against old age and accumulating grain to prevent hunger. Who else can I count on if I don’t count on them? How can I not perfunctory them? Parents in the world, It’s miserable to do what I’ve done! The other day I packed up my parcels and couldn’t write, so I asked two girls who worked in a foreign company to help me write. After half a day of writing, I couldn’t manage the table wine. If you pour your hands on people, you have to leave them a light meal. Cooking is a trivial matter. I used to be able to hold a few tables of banquets, but now my clever wife can't cook rice-free meals. Don't look at me with a slick head Slippery kicking and jumping on the street, really sick inside with five tuberculosis and seven wounds, exhausted and sick all over here! Every day I go to Pude Hospital for injections, and the medicine is expensive and hard to buy. It’s not a good thing to meet Dr. Lu again I like to take advantage of others. I am so busy with my thoughts—and I have such a leisurely mind to chat with him! I don’t know what sin I did in my previous life. I have encountered these greedy cats all my life, and I can’t go anywhere clean !"

Mrs Symson said many other things which I cannot remember.The fence of Hartung Garden was broken, and a corner of the wall collapsed, revealing a small gray tile-roofed house at the gap. The smoke from cooking rose, and the scaled tiles faded and whitened in the smoke, and some of them were discolored, just like a photo taken many years ago. Mrs Symson's nickname was Nixie.She doesn't like to talk about her childhood experience very much, so we can only find a little clue from the stories she often tells.She has a stomach full of murderous classics, telling the children, half to frighten the children, half to frighten herself, and she gets a strange satisfaction from the horrible memories.She talked about a woman in the countryside of Guangdong who raised a dozen girls at home.For a small matter, a little girl was punished to stand in the river, the water was waist-deep, stood for a day or two, and when she came out, the moisture was rotten to the waist.When the adoptive daughter first entered the house, she was first given a warning, and three bamboo chopsticks were tightly tied on the back of her hand. The chopsticks were deeply embedded in the meat, and the meat grave next to her was so high.After a few days, pus came out of the swollen place, and the chopsticks got into the meat, and she was asked to pull them out one by one.The voice of shouting at the top of the throat can be heard all along the river.Even if Nixi is not one of these girls, we know that her origin is a remote village in Guangdong.The poor in Guangdong wear black all year round, black earthen cloth and black copy silk.Nixi has hated black all her life, and has a taboo for black, because it represents poverty and torture.Sometimes when Nixi is happy, she also refers to herself as Zhujiang's Dan family sister, but that may be her romantic fantasy.Her birthplace may be near Kowloon.There are also many small rivers. When she was fourteen, her adoptive mother sent her to an Indian silk shop.It sold for one hundred and twenty yuan.Nixi herself said it was one hundred and twenty yuan at first, but then she felt that it was too cheap, so she said it was three hundred and fifty yuan, and then said it was three hundred. She had brought several girls there one after another, but the Indian looked down upon her. She was the seventh, and as soon as he saw her, he left her behind. This was one of the proudest things in her life.She also has some legendary interludes that she and her first husband met long ago.The young Indian sailed to the country for a business contact.She happened to be washing vegetables on the shore, and although she didn't answer, she had a heart in both words.He made a small fortune, found out her background, and asked someone to find Nixi's adoptive mother to send him a girl from a long distance, but he didn't dare to name her, for fear that the woman would be a rare commodity. Extraordinarily difficult.Therefore, it is only after seeing the seventh that the transaction is made.This layer is mostly fabricated by her. Nixi's complexion was a bright apricot yellow.A pair of heavy, big black eyes crushed the sun's rays, and rubbed gold in the black.The nose and lips are too thick, and the frame of the face seems round and not round, and has no style, but how can she let you see all this clearly.Her beauty is flowing beauty, even if she is sitting neatly, she still has to move her neck three times, it is really difficult to draw and describe.When I first went to the city, it was still in the Guangxu period. I combed two buns, wore two emerald green phoenix flowers filled with silver, and ruby ​​pendants hanging from my ears, and wore a fire palindrome satin coat in smoke, and green silk with four seasons flowers. trousers, followed behind the woman, half-hidden her face with a thin fringed white silk sweat towel, entered through the back door of the silk shop, and climbed the stairs shyly.At the bottom of the stairs, the guys were eating around the table, some Indians and some Chinese, whispering to each other and laughing.Those who are more honest, fearing that their boss will be offended, will lower their heads and eat rice. Upstairs in his own bedroom, Yahya Lumjian, the silk shopkeeper, was shaving with a basin of hot water on a mahogany stand and a mirror on a table. He had the most fashionable two-twist mustache in the West at that time, and the tip of the beard was twisted straight with glue.Facing the wind trembled slightly.He was wrapped in a white gauze baotou, but he was wearing a very crisp suit.Not more than thirty years old, but also a handsome man.Hearing the sound of footsteps, he grabbed a wet towel, wiped his face, came out to meet the woman, nodded to the woman, walked back to the room, and sat down by himself.The woman in black and with a yellow face had been here a few times before, and she was already familiar with the way, so she followed in.As soon as Nixi entered the room, she turned her back, lowered her head, and stood with folded hands. Yahya took a look at her, and said lightly: "I don't want those with trachoma." The woman didn't want to say more, she reached for Nixi's collar with one hand, turned her around, and turned her back with that hand. Her lower eyelids said: "Look! Look! See for yourself!" Yahya came forward, and the woman saw Nixi's upper and lower eyelids with him.Nixi was in pain, and with tears in her eyes, she gave him a hard look. Yahya smiled with her hips crossed, and said again: "I don't want the damp ones." The woman pushed Nixi onto the chair, bent down, and lifted her trouser legs, revealing a pair of bright red brocade flat bottoms. Shoes with a parrot picking peaches embroidered on the toe.The woman was about to take off her shoes with her, but Nixi refused, and after a little struggle, the woman gave her a mouthful backhand.As the saying goes: practice makes perfect.The woman's slap was so flexible that Nixi's sideburns were not frizzy at all.Yahya couldn't help it, grabbed the woman's arm, and shouted: "Come on! Come on! It's mine now. If you want to beat me, I will beat it myself. You don't need it!" The woman couldn't help laughing and said: " It turned out to be yours! Boss, you just spit it out! It’s rare that this child is destined for you, are you still afraid that I will take the lead and hold you back? What kind of moisture is not moisture, just picky Son, it seems like you want to kill me—it’s not like your boss used to be! Boss, you don’t know, she’s yours, and it’s good that I disciplined her back then! This child has everything. Okay, just be a bit stubborn. If you don't worry about your distress, if I didn't fight for three days and two days, I wouldn't be able to deal with such a refined and elegant girl. Another lawless one came into your house, Throw your rice, sprinkle your face, I'm afraid you will be knocked to pieces!" Yahya laughed and said: "You fight for freedom, you will get scars all over your body, it doesn't look good!" The woman rolled up Nixi's sleeve again, and put her arm in front of Yahya's eyes. Yahya shook his head and said, "I don't think you would choose a place where you can see her to torture her!" The woman spit :'You are too silly!Is it possible to ask people to take a look at the back? " Nixi gave him a hard look again, Yahya laughed, and accostingly took the small bundle from Nixi's hand, weighed it, and said to the woman: "Is this the escort you gave her? Let me open my eyes." She was about to unpack the bag, but the woman hurriedly stopped her and said, "You also need to look at the shirts and shoes! Boss, why are you so poor?" Yahya said, "You don't even have a replacement set of clothes?" The woman said: "When you marry into a silk and satin farm, do you still worry about not having silk and satin to wrap her up all year round? It's warm in winter and cool in summer? You know what you're wearing, boss. Come and feel it." Picking up Nixi's trousers, he said, "It's a ruler from Suzhou! Those who pay tribute are nothing more than that!" Then he said, "The feet are big feet. I know your boss has a foreign temper, but he doesn't like small feet. If you don't have this extraordinary talent, you won't be worthy of your boss. I don't want more of you. You give me two hundred yuan, and I will ask you for another twenty yuan. It’s broken, these two happy money are also part of the job, but the boss is Mrs. Wang who sold the mill, so I can’t push it!” Yahya said: “If you are tired, you ran twice more, and I will pay for the car and boat with you separately. That's it. Two hundred yuan is too much, how can we go on talking?" The woman said: "You are here again! I sold it to you for two hundred yuan. I was kind enough to plan for her, to make you a husband and a wife. Wife, young and young, making her enjoy the blessings of the next life is also our mother and daughter. If I have a dark conscience and sell her to the hall, it will be worth money, let alone beating her. That's enough!" Now, the two sides resorted to both hard and soft tactics, and finally negotiated a price before agreeing on the price. Yahya is a strong and enthusiastic man. When he came to Hong Kong from India, he had no money. It was not easy to start from scratch. Because some people value money very much, they are already stingy at a young age.For middle-aged rich wives, he should be the most ideal lover, but what a fourteen-year-old girl like Nixi needs is not enthusiasm but a little pocket money and self-esteem. She has no place in the silk shop.It is inconvenient for the guys to call her the proprietress, and it is inconvenient to call her by her first name directly, so they have to use the word "upstairs" vaguely to represent her.At the age of eighteen she gave birth to a son for Yahya, whom she named Jimmy in England.After having a child, I have more freedom of movement. I have met a group of friends and worshiped sisters. Among them are foreign maids, Cantonese opera singers, and shopkeeper's daughters.Nixi was ranked second, and everyone changed their name to her second aunt. Yahya's silk and satin shop is a two-up and two-down building. In the main room on the front of the store, Yahya used it as a bedroom, and rented out the back room.The cellar on the lowest floor is shared by the two families. There are boxes and cages piled up in the dark, bars of soap made by themselves, and durian cakes sealed in red paper brought from Nanyang.Dried figs are strung on the ten-meter-long hemp rope, coiled into thick circles, and piled on top of foreign oil barrels, with smoked fish, bacon, and half-dried trousers hanging from their heads.The shadowy Mobil oil lamp.It was a winter evening, and Nixi set up a rack in the cellar to iron her clothes.A young man from the third tenant's house came down to open a box to get a leather jacket, the two mocked and made a pile, pushing and shoving, the charcoal fire in the iron burned a hole in the man's sleeve, and Nixi laughed so hard. In the midst of chaos, the man above shouted from the stairs: "Second Aunt, the boss has gone upstairs." Nixi agreed, put away the iron, dismantled the shelf, folded up the blanket on the shelf, kicked and kicked it up with wooden clogs.First, I went to the kitchen to pick up a bucket of coal, took it upstairs to fuel the stove, and asked Yahya, "I'm so busy today until the lights are on?" A Portuguese nun cut a few feet of velvet to make the altar's curtains, but she thought it was too expensive, so she insisted on asking the staff to invite me out and make friends with me, nagging me for a long time." Nixi laughed and said, "The monastic's money, It's not easy to make money." Yahya said: "I still want to make money from them! It's fine if I don't post a few of her. She is full of benevolence and morality, and she can only chew people for nothing. Then Mrs. Melanie said she knew What about you." Nixi said with a sigh: "The one who came is Mrs. Melanie? Her nephew is my elder brother-in-law." Yahya said: "When you just came, I didn't hear of any relatives. What will happen now? I don’t know how to get involved in these entanglements! Is there any hot water underneath? Boil two pots, I want to take a bath.” Nixi went to the stove again to make water, added firewood, and squatted in front of the stove door, watching the fire gradually turn red, making her cheeks red.Standing up, he took off his overcoat. Underneath he wore only a tight-fitting cotton padded jacket in pink and pink crepe, and took an old apron from the wall with a hollowed-out lined white dug cloud blue satin and tied it on.First washed a tin soup pot, wrapped it in a coat, sent it up, and brought up a red lacquer bathtub, then brought two pots of boiling water up, bolted the door, and waited for Yahya to take off his clothes. Wipe his back again.After wiping for a while, Yahya stretched her two wet arms behind her back, hooked her neck, and hugged her tightly.The chest of the blue satin apron was covered with soap scum. Nixi said: "Hurry up and wash, the water is going to be cold." Yaheya started to wash again, and suddenly said: "You have joined the religion, do you have any such words?" Nixi said: "Where is it? I'm just at my brother-in-law's house I have seen this Meilani teacher and wife twice..." Yahya said: "I advise you to make do with it, and believe in Bodhisattvas. Even if you send oil and rice to the temple during the new year's festival, or donate a few, it will be fine. There is still a limit. It’s okay to change this group of Catholic aunts, they are used to hanging around in the mansion, and the lion opened their mouths, I can’t stand it!” Nixi laughed and said: “You also know that they are used to hanging around in the big house. That’s right, let’s count down the governor. They are personalities, and they all have contacts with them. Except for the British officials, they are the most important. Although you are a businessman, you have been promoted every step of the way in the past two years. It's more convenient." Yaheya laughed and said, "So you deliberately want to make friends with officials. My sister, when did you grow up?" Nixi glanced at him and said: "There is a saying that when the tide rises, all boats rise. If you get along well, won't my wife be as expensive as my husband?" Yahya smiled and said: "I'm afraid you're climbing too fast, I can't keep up!" Nixi curled her lips and said with a smile: "You still say you can't keep up? You are running this shop now, even an old lady I can't even afford to hire you? I'll do all the rough work, and make a wife look like a girl with black eyebrows and black lips. It's also a joke. You're just a person on the scene, don't you know that? Depending on you She is so smart, so I have to close the door and do my brainwork in the shop." Yahya stretched out his hand to hang her neck again, raised his face and pecked her cheek, and said in a friendly voice: "I don't want to do it either. Brain, I just want to be your heart." Nixi spat: "I don't have a heart." Yahya said: "Intestines are fine without a heart. Don't Chinese people pay much attention to intestines?As soon as I came, I broke my intestines. Nixi poked the back of his neck and said, "No way!"I've already given you a break! " Seeing that Yahya seems to be very happy today, she took the opportunity to speak and said leisurely: "Don't talk about foreign nuns, there are some good ones. Mrs. Melanie, you are so good! You are really straightforward, and you don't even have a word of politeness. I am sweating all over, and I always feel uncomfortable." Yahya said: "Oh? What did she say you came?" Nixi said: "She said that I'm not a vegetarian, I'm a vegetarian, and the days will be long in the future. Let alone the heavens, mortals will not tolerate me." Yahya stood in the bathtub, bent over and twisted the towel.