Chapter 14 Model Shadow Zero Chapter · Ji Gong

Twenty or thirty years ago, every mansion of an old-fashioned old family could actually be a shrunken society; there were various characters living in it, their intricate personalities, interests, and trivial activities, or they belonged to fixed , or by chance, can often be performed at the same time as a drama. My old family, like many other families at the time, can now be called an old family.In that not very big house, it also became a microcosm of society.Since many children and I have grown up there, we are used to all kinds of intricate arrangements and disputes; like a small fish growing by the beach, it is used to all kinds of snail shells, clams, big fish, small fish, commonplace, Nothing surprising in that dramatic gathering.But after many years, sometimes after recollection, the scene at that time was very close.The colors in the eyes are dark and dark, not only the memory is floating and galloping, but the emotion is also stretching and contracting unconsciously, as if there is some activity.

But the great drama is not in my mind at the moment, and it is only a small part of the great drama, a character among the intricate characters that attracts my thoughts at the moment. He is our great-uncle, and this fact was known to a group of us children by the "adults".So we all called him "Ji Gong" without doubting the veracity of this fact.But at other times, adults tell us, indirectly or directly, that he is not our uncle!Anything that belongs to the story, of course, will be more deeply embedded in the children's memory. The origin of this uncle will always leave traces in our hearts.

"Ji Gong" is the son brought by his great-grandmother; this story has some twists and turns, giving children many opportunities to imagine.My great-grandmother had a child herself. According to the adults, how smart and handsome he was!It's a pity that "something happened" in a very hot summer when he was nine years old.The story goes like this: He and a child played with lifting an old-fashioned large teapot, singing folk songs of earthy folk songs, and carried it from the back hall where the gods were enshrined to the front main hall... (Our hearts are in the A vivid picture immediately emerged here: two children, bare-chested; wearing flower-stitched red bellybands, carrying a red lacquered wooden barrel; inside it was a large teapot inlaid with white tin and copper; It was hot;——) But the tragedy happened behind this picture. The great-grandfather came out from behind the door with a pipe in his hand, accidentally knocked over a child, and things went wrong!That irreparable tragedy is forever embedded in the life of that gentle and refined scholar.

Needless to say, this Jigong was carried to replace the smart child who died tragically.But it was another ten years later, when my great-grandmother was already old, and my grandmother was about to leave the cabinet.No one who told the story mentioned how Jigong was smart and beautiful when he was young.If you talk about Jigong's childhood, you must use a sigh to say how naughty Jigong is, how he doesn't like studying, especially how he has no interest in learning, and when he grows up, he still can't participate They consider the exam an honor. In a theory, since we were studying there to learn how to make pairs, and we heard that Jigong was not good at this kind of thing, it is not unreasonable to have a little contempt for Jigong psychologically.But in fact, we not only always have such soft feelings for him, but also often have a lot of surprise and admiration for him.

Ji Gong lived in an old building across the courtyard.Not only in retrospect now, that place is a romantic place, but even at that time, we didn't feel that the small old corridor with the creaking dangerous ladder on it was very interesting. Since our realm is confined to a house surrounded by walls, the lively childlike heart sometimes refuses to get over in the monotonous life, so we must try our best to find freshness within the restricted range.On a small piece of ground, we think that the most varied and interesting thing is people: wherever there are people, no matter which small corner seems to hide countless strange things, we are all very interested in it taste.Therefore, the two bungalows lived by Mr. Li, who carry water, are far away from the back door of the tea garden, and a row of vacant rooms outside the kitchen guarded by the retired old mother Chen. In our search for new activities, or the process of growing up , are absolutely required.Not to mention the old building across the courtyard where Ji Gong lived.

In that upstairs, much of the education we received and the knowledge we acquired were beyond the imagination of the adults in charge of our education.Let's just say, the most important things are the movement of the clock's machine wheel, the world map, the oil painting of foreign army warships, and photography skills, but the most important thing is Ji Gong, his life, his appearance, and his temper. , his own interest in this new knowledge. Ji Gong is already middle-aged, but he still looks like a child when he is curious about all kinds of new things.In front of many people, he is considered a downcast who does not study and does not make progress, so in behavior, when he is in front of others, he is used to being ashamed, humble, retreating, and restrained. He only returns to his old upstairs. Only then did he recover his natural qualities and come into contact with the children kindly and innocently.

Upstairs he used to laugh happily; sometimes he would scoff at us for being stupid for playing with small machines or something like that--this is absolutely impossible in front of people.In today's very common language, Ji Gong is a person with "scientific interests", and that small building is his private laboratory.But at that time, Ji Gong was just a down and out person who didn't like to be a pair of reading scriptures, and that small corner was actually let by his grandmother with generosity of kindness and friendly tolerance to kill his useless days and months. In summer, around two o'clock in the afternoon.In the complex family of dozens of people, everyone can take off his work and spare a little time to take a nap.Some children were also caught by their mothers or caretakers and slept sideways in the hot and stuffy corner of the bed.At this time, the fiery sun always looks very lonely, meaninglessly covering one or two empty courtyards; one place with two places for laundry; a kitchen that has just been opened; or an unused water tank.In the silence, magpies boldly flew to the ground, walking back and forth like people, looking for snacks, cats, yellow dogs, all curled up in a ball, sleeping on the threshold, as if they were not doing anything.

I like this time, this kind of loneliness feels indescribable to me.After dinner, I can find many diversions in any shady place without company.In the beginning, I often went into Jigong's small courtyard alone, not looking for Jigong, but just standing in the doorway blowing the wind, or watching the shade of the big grapefruit tree swaying back and forth in front of me.Once I thought I was the only one around, but suddenly I found a long figure in the corridor, and I was not surprised.Peeking along the figure, I realized that Ji Gong was busy with something alone.He saw me coming and waved to me.

It turns out that this time is also Ji Gong's most precious time, and he doesn't easily waste it on napping. My special friendship with him is also based on this little sympathy.He told me that he had learned to take pictures by himself, and he had given him a new camera he bought at home to try.At night, I have seen him light a red light and develop the old-fashioned glass negatives. During the day, he patiently exposes the films one by one. This is the first time I have encountered it!At that time, he kindly pointed it out to me alone, and asked me for help, and took me upstairs to fetch things twice.There are usually too many children and he has no time to explain the truth, and now he also told me some of them slowly.

We never get tired of looking at the room upstairs of Ji Gong. There are quite a lot of things in it. There are several old-fashioned clocks and clocks, all of which were entrusted by relatives to repair them. One piece is put together carefully.There is actually a pair of binoculars on the table, and many strange reprinted oil paintings are hung on the wall, some are foreign royal families, at most there are pictures of the Franco-Prussian War with guns, some movies of trains and ships, and large and small maps. "Ji Gong, who taught you how to fix the clock?" Ji Gong smiled, not proud at all, but more modest, pouted his lips, sighed and said, "No one has taught Ji Gong anything!"

"These machines are also man-made, you know!" He pointed to the chime clock. "Anyone who likes these things can take them apart and have a look and understand them." "If you take it apart, you still don't understand it?" I asked him. He sighed more thoughtfully. "You know, Jigong thinks that there are many factories and training institutes in foreign countries, teaching people how to make such dexterous machines, one person's intelligence will definitely not be able to do so well." Jigong said with infinite melancholy.But I didn't understand what factories or training institutes said. Jigong said again: "I went to the city to see that there was a counter for repairing clocks and watches in a foreign goods store. You said it was really strange. That person made a clock there, and Jigong didn't understand many places!" At this moment, I thought that Ji Gong could be proud, but Ji Gong's face looked even more gloomy at the moment, and his eyes were looking at the oil painting of the steamer on the wall. "These clocks and watches are really not very interesting." He said, "Ji Gong wants to see a steamship in Shanghai. How interesting is that big machine turning?" "Didn't Uncle Wei go to Japan by himself?" I said, "You wait for him to come back and ask him." Jigong smiled wryly. "Stupid boy, Uncle Wei is a scholar. He went abroad to study. He sat on a steamer and didn't go to the machine room. There are crude workers and firemen waiting to take care of it." "What about you? Could you go to the machine room of the crude fireman?" The children were influenced by the adults and doubted Ji Gong's self-esteem. "Jigong likes to study, Jigong doesn't care about those people." He smiled, seeing that I was very worried about him, he quickly changed his words and said to me, "In foreign countries, there are capable people who specialize in machines. It’s like the captain on a ship, he needs to understand machines and geography. An officer, he only needs to understand the machines in the cannons, reading ancient books is irrelevant, foreigners are more capable than us, just because of their machines…” This time Jigong talked a lot, and I couldn't understand him, but I was afraid that he would find that I was too young to understand his words, and would not ask me for help in the future, so I kept listening, until Jigong remembered the photos on the porch, jumped Get up and pull me downstairs. A few days later, Ji Gong's photos won the praise of the whole family, especially the women.When the weather is fine, Aunt Six finds a few sisters-in-law and invites the grandmother and aunts to take pictures in her yard.Aunt Six combed her oily hair, and painted her eyebrows delicately and lightly on her fair face, just like the orchids she painted with a bit of reluctance.In her courtyard, there are several plum blossoms, several poles of bamboo, a moon gate, and a pile of rockeries, which everyone thinks can be painted.But before taking pictures, everyone's preparations for the display are as arduous as Ji Gong's arrangements for camera negatives and so on.The aunt directed the girl Yuzhen and the gardener Lao Wang to busy set up the tea table, place delicate hookahs and teacups.Ornate potted flowers are lined up in front, and a few straight-backed chairs are lined up on both sides. Everyone sits in the same posture according to their seniority and age, and sometimes one or two children are pulled as a foil. At this time, Ji Gong's head and hands were patiently moving between his black cloth and the machine.After contemplating for quite a while, he felt that he had reached a relatively complete level, and then he stretched out his head to watch the crowd being photographed.Every time he had a novel proposal, the people who took the pictures were talking and laughing vigorously.This made the grandmother very proud, which even the children could sense, although we didn't understand much of her grief at the time.As for Jigong, his whole energy is focused on the photography skills, and the surrounding air and human emotions are not in his attention.After taking pictures, he felt a slight sense of complete comfort. He carried the camera happily and took a group of children back. There are also more serious times than this, such as New Year's Day or old people's birthdays, or banquets, Ji Gong's duty of taking pictures is even more important.When you go to Ji Gong's house in the morning, you can see thick red cloth and black cloth hanging on the window, and a small red lamp is lit inside, and Ji Gong humps back and forth in the dark to work. His kind of interest, hard work and seriousness, in retrospect, I believe that if he was born thirty years later, he would have a solid position in this society.Taking pictures was just a scientific activity he had to do at that time, but his interest in other machines was not inferior to taking pictures.But in fact, since taking pictures has contributed to the people who support him, he has no choice but to be content with this job. Another time I remember very clearly, my grandfather who liked weapons and martial arts brought many so-called "foreign guns" to Ji Gong and asked him to polish them.The two sat on the porch and chatted, and the children surrounded them.Ji opened a bottle of olive oil, pulled some rags, and played with those foreign guns that we thought were quite mysterious, while talking about foreign ships, foreign guns, and other things done by foreigners. All Ji Gong knew was specific knowledge. He held the gun in his hand, opened it here, moved it there, and gave speeches like gesticulating and talking about the ingenuity of the machine, from guns to cannons, from cannons to ships, from ships to trains, a one piece.The grandfather was surprised. The old man who had already believed in the restoration heard Ji Gong's many words, and he respected Ji Gong quite a lot, and nodded there with a smile and concentrated attention.The older children also opened their eyes wide, which is unheard of; my deepest impression is that grandfather's very happy face to Ji Gong. Grandfather talked about sailing, and said that when he was young, he wanted to go abroad very much. When he heard that a certain place recruited students to study foreign languages ​​and was recommended to go abroad, he tried his best to apply for the exam.But at that time, he had hired his grandmother, and his father-in-law was very upset when he got the news, and he even threatened him to get rid of his low-minded aspirations by asking for a divorce.When Ji Gong heard this, he smiled bleakly, or thought of how many dreams he had when he was young, and they were destroyed by the same scholar. When they talked about the Suez Canal, Ji Gong took down the map upstairs happily and sympathetically, and talked about history from geography, Jiawu, Gengzi, it was the first time I heard it at that time.I even remember the indignant comments made by Ji Gong, who usually doesn't speak, and I'm more than a little proud of him, although I don't understand why his conclusions always come back to the machine. But Jigong left our house a year later, not because of the machine, but because of a woman beyond our expectations. Maybe it's because Ji Gong is quite famous for taking pictures, and he often goes out to take pictures of nearby scenic spots and scenery. When some people know about it, people often come to invite him to take pictures.In order to be interested in technology, he must go to other people's homes to do his duty to take pictures of the whole family, or take pictures of a single person wearing a court bead jacket.The reward is often some food and fruit. Once he was invited to take a photo of a girl who had never left the court. Because this girl went through a little trouble in choosing a husband, her family was often pessimistic about her marriage.It was her cousin elder brother who met Ji Gong. Whether the elder brother deliberately arranged the photo-taking or not, the family members discussed it very enthusiastically afterwards, and we still don't know.The most important thing is that in fact Ji Gong has a good impression of this girl's family, and he has done some duties for this girl's photo; I don't remember if he added color to the photo, at least the girl's lips were smeared. A little rouge. When this story got to the grandmother's ears, the woman who believed in strict family upbringing was not very happy.At first, she felt that it would be dishonorable and improper for a woman who has not left the court to have her photos printed in the hands of a man without a family.Moreover, this woman is either from the same province as ours, or belongs to a "Waijiang" family, so we must be especially cautious.In this dispute, I had to hear another tragedy about Ji Gong's life.Many years ago, he had married a wife, a young and beautiful wife, who also gave birth to a child, but within a very short period of time, both mother and child died.Except for Ji Gong alone, there is almost no evidence for the existence of these two people. Now the girl taking the picture is a new change in Ji Gong's life, opening a way in his monotonous days and months.Not only in terms of human relationships, Jigong also needs the care and comfort of the opposite sex just like everyone else, but also in terms of career ambitions, the girl’s family also gave Jigong a lot of encouragement. At least the dream of going to Shanghai to watch steamships has come true. It is quite guaranteed that the days of long and unresolved days are now suddenly hopeful.Although Jigong was still silent in front of people, he began to take a pleasant walk in the small courtyard; he noticed that the grapefruit tree was blooming again; whether there was a moon at night; he even bought a few goldfish to raise in the tank.Upstairs, he also hummed a little tune, framed the landscape photos into beautiful frames, and took them out neatly and entrusted someone to sell them.Sometimes he tidied up the old boxes; the worn-out things that he hadn't had the heart to rummage through for so many years, are now sometimes taken out and put on the bed or the back of the chair. Even though the children asked questions curiously, he didn't care. Suddenly and abruptly he decided on the marriage, and without my grandmother's consent, he chose the auspicious date and prepared to marry.The grandmother was so angry that she kept silent, but retreated into the woman's tears, sobbing all her disappointment in this brother.When the family saw that my uncle was disrespectful, and went to other provinces to marry into a family with a few belongings, naturally many expressed sympathy with my grandmother.But Ji Gong finally left that romantic building and went to find another life for him. The small courtyard covered with grapefruit tree shade gradually became a lonelier corner, and no one went up and down the creaky wooden ladder since then, except for children who sometimes got mischievous and hurried down halfway up.Thinking about it now, I can't help but praise Jigong for his struggling vitality at that time, for being unwilling to be content with a flat status quo.That small building can only keep the shadow of Ji Gong's past misfortune in dust, but it can't bury him alive in it. Since Ji Gong's behavior was a betrayal of his relatives, many people in the old family could not tolerate this kind of lack of self-esteem.His post-marriage actions, other than bringing the bride to pay homage to his grandmother, no one has ever heard of other things being mentioned!It seems that not long after that, he also went to Shanghai, and he had something to do with the steamer.Once I boldly asked my grandfather, he didn't seem to have much interest in whether Ji Gong worked on the steamer, and he completely forgot a very harmonious conversation between them.Before grandma was alive, Ji Gong also had letters, but after her death, they disappeared completely, and there was no communication. Two years ago, I went south and went back to the city where I lived when I was young. I accidentally met a distant relative. He told me that Ji Gong lived in the city and was very wealthy. He has four children who study in various schools and are very knowledgeable about science. Hobbies, especially one of them, is very smart and has won school prizes and so on.So I also expressed my emotions about personnel affairs in an old-fashioned way.For example, Ji Gong himself was born 30 to 40 years earlier. I said, I hope that the age and environment of his son will be suitable for his intelligence, and give him a chance to develop so that he will not repeat the tragedy of his father.And on the way of life, I wish him early encounter with sympathetic encouragement, and swiftly attain his possible success.This gain and loss is not only Ji Gong's personal, but can be counted as our old country. As for the fact that I will meet the 60-year-old Ji Gong and hear his history of struggle after he left our home, there is really no need to go into detail here, because the mechanic he figured out on his own without training after middle age, his Achievements are bound to be limited.Even though he is quite gifted with intelligence, he cannot wrestle with too inappropriate circumstances.Because of his hobby of machines, he went to work on ships, worked in wharf companies, and even started his small-scale silk weaving factory independently. All these, like his photography, were only small businesses that could actually win material success. There can no longer be any subsidy or inspiration for his spiritual and supermaterial interests.In old age, the wisdom of the time disappears day by day, and all that remains is a kindly mediocrity and emptiness.Seriously, he's still a loser.If you are more superstitious, believe that God may have to compensate Ji Gong for his grievances in his life. The following story should be based on his smart boy and our era.But I'm still very skeptical.