Chapter 47 Friends, come and see the snow (Part 1)

Let’s talk about the resin first, which is the oil shed from the red pine, which will solidify into golden yellow in the wind.They are scraped off the tree with a sharp knife, put into a tin box, and then sit on the stove to boil.Soon, the resin melted, and the pine aroma came out, and the tin box was left to dry overnight, and a piece of resin fell off.A good resin has no impurities, is crystal clear and orange.You ask me what I have in my mouth, and that is it.Like chewing gum, it cannot be swallowed.The locals call it "pine oil seed".There is no girl who does not like to chew it when she is a child.They like to chew and chirp like birds.The sound of chewing by a girl with decayed teeth is particularly full.

The felt boots on my feet were given by old man Huda.It is made of roe deer skin, which is light and warm.Speaking of Old Man Huda, he is the most personable person I have met in Wuhui Town.I have been trapped in Tacheng by heavy snow for three days, and it was the old man Huda who drove a horse and sledge to bring me to Wuhui Town.He is over seventy years old, and he wears a dirty goatskin coat all day long. His chest is always bulging, and a wine gourd is tucked in it.Whether he is driving a horse to sledge, walking or shopping at a supply and marketing agency, he always pulls out a gourd of wine unexpectedly, takes a sip, then blows his nose happily and rubs it on his cotton pants.He is short and thin, but he is neither stooped nor hunchbacked, and his teeth are exceptionally good, so he walks as swiftly as a whirlwind.The night I arrived in Wuhui Town, he knocked on the door drunk, and first stated that he didn't come here on my mind (joke, I'm from his granddaughter's generation! Besides, even if he really thought that way, he still has more than enough energy. Then he brags that all the women he has been with have good looks, better teeth than mine (he called my gray teeth rat shit), and brighter eyes (he compares them like a lamp full of oil) , and the hands are more delicate than mine (my hands were already cracked by the cold).Seeing him talking so nonchalantly, I boldly teased him and asked how women like him with such a short stature.He laughed, half of his face twitched, and the other half of his face became stiff (perhaps caused by alcohol paralysis). This kind of laughter gave people a trembling feeling, which was worse than crying.He said that women liked his handicrafts. He could sew roe skin waistcoats with colored silk thread in the middle; he could make rabbit fur hats;He also knows traditional Chinese medicine, and he can cure women's problems such as insufficient energy and blood, irregular menstruation, and back pain.I asked if it was acupuncture?He took a sip of his wine and said, "It's herbs, and there are treasures everywhere on the mountain." He also told me that he has four sons, three daughters-in-law (the eldest daughter-in-law just died), and a large group of grandchildren.He counted on his fingers for a while, and said that there were seven grandsons and six granddaughters, thirteen in total.But what he likes most is the seven-year-old fish pattern of the second son's family.He went on to talk about the fish pattern, saying that the fish pattern is connected with him. Once, when he reversed in the mountain, a horse was run over by a log and injured his leg. He was worried that he would not be able to go down the mountain to find someone for help.Yu Wen was playing glass balls on the kang at home when he suddenly told his father that his grandpa's horse was injured and he couldn't come down the mountain.Hu Da's second son dubiously drove another pair of horses up the mountain on a sledge, and it turned out to be the case.

Huda came to see me that night to see my maroon suitcase.I remember being interested in the suitcase when he picked me up.I moved the suitcase from the kang to the stove, clicked the nose of the lock, and opened the suitcase.When the two clicks sounded, his thin ears trembled subtly.He approached the suitcase, first staring at it intently, then picked up the contents one by one with his hands, and put them under his eyes for a closer look.Cameras, glue bottles, miniature tape recorders, and even embroidered pajamas did not escape his grasp.When he looked at things, his expressions were very rich, sometimes surprised, sometimes disappointed, sometimes sad (when he saw the pajamas), and sometimes angry (he was dissatisfied with my tucking the doll in it, thinking it was trying to suffocate her).He had seen cameras but was unfamiliar with miniature tape recorders, so I stuck button earphones into his ears and played him some music.You must have never imagined that when he first heard the music, he jumped up in fright, screamed "Ouch", and the wine gourd was thrown to the ground.He said: "Where does this sound come from?" But he got used to it after listening to it for a while. When I helped him take off the earphones, he muttered to me: "This sound is not good, it's noisy."

The old man Huda had seen enough of my suitcase, and then asked me how long I had lived in Wuhui Town, whether I was afraid of being alone, and so on.I said I would stay until the beginning of spring, and I lived alone in the city, so I had nothing to fear.He said to me, if you are afraid, I will call Yuwen to be your company. He knew I was a painter and had seen painters, so he had no interest in my paint box.He said that a painter came to Wuhui Town a few years ago, that man's fingers were as slender as women, and he specialized in painting women in Wuhui Town.Let the women furnish him (Huda's words), and give them some money.Later, a man discovered that the artist had painted his own woman's breasts and buttocks, so he joined forces with other men in Wuhui Town to beat the artist and drive him out of the town.After he finished speaking, he smiled at me triumphantly, and I quickly said that I was not interested in the human body, but only liked painting landscapes.He said tactfully, "Is there no one in the scene?"

The morning after he left, I found these felt boots in the snow at the door.I don't know who sent it quietly.Ask the neighbor's sister-in-law, and she said in an unquestionable tone after seeing it: "This is the handicraft of old man Huda." In your letter, you asked how big Wuhui Town is. How can I describe it?It has no boundaries with the surrounding mountains, forests and valleys, and is completely a part of nature, so it appears very large.It is said to be small because there are very few people, less than a hundred.Especially in this season, the temperature outside is more than 30 degrees below zero, and I occasionally meet a person walking on the road, and they are all wrapped up tightly. People don't talk on the road, and there is no human voice outside.From time to time there was the cry of livestock, which was also lonely.Residents here live a self-sufficient life, growing their own vegetables and food.Winter vegetables are basically potatoes, cabbage and radishes.They are stored in an outdoor cellar, and a fire is built inside to drive out the cold during the three-nine weather.There are only two doctors in the health center, and they are also in charge of injections and medicines.Male patients are given injections by male doctors, while female patients are given injections by female doctors.It is said that in the past there were only male doctors, and women were reluctant to get injections when they were sick (it was said that they did not want to show their buttocks to men).There was no way, so Wuhui Town invited a female doctor from outside.This female doctor is very quiet and single, so there are always three people working in the clinic (the male doctor's wife is worried, so she also comes with her every day).There is also a store in Wuhui Town (young people call it a supply and marketing cooperative, and old people call it a cooperative), which is very deserted, and two shop assistants always doze off with pale faces.The tin boxes of the cans sold in the store have long been rusted, as if they were excavated from the trenches of World War II.There are frequent power outages here, so the candle business is good.I went to buy candles that day, bought two packs of toilet paper, and walked out of the store with them.People who met me were very shy. It turns out that toilet paper is considered a hidden commodity and cannot be held in the open.Local women always carry a cloth bag when they go to buy it. When male customers are present, they go to look at other products, and they dodge when buying, which is really interesting.

You asked about the string of straw copper coins in the upper left corner of the photo, which was given to me by Yuwen.He traded it for my rouge case with a small mirror.The fish pattern came to the door automatically.I remember that it was a certain noon, I had just finished eating, and I was watching the stove roasting melon seeds, when a child pushed the door and came in (I didn’t lock the door like the locals), he was Yuwen.He was wearing a blue cotton monkey, his cheeks were flushed from the cold, and there was a stream of snot hanging from his nose.When he entered the door, he was stunned by the heat, and then he started to swallow the snot into his stomach, and then he opened his mouth to talk to me.He said: "Can I exchange your things?" I asked: "Who are you?" .I laughed.Yuwen took off the cotton monkey like an old acquaintance, took out a bunch of copper coins made of straw from his bosom, and said to me: "It can't be used as real money, but it looks better than real money. I made it up, and there are twenty-one coins in total." Money." I asked him what he wanted to exchange for something of mine, and he said tactfully that he had to see my stuff first.I gave him some odds and ends, and later he became interested in the rouge box.Yuwen is very short, with thin ears like his grandfather, but his eyes are dark and big.He told me that his family has two pigs, one sheep, and nine chickens. All these poultry will be slaughtered before the Spring Festival, leaving only one crowing rooster.He is more talkative than his grandfather.Then he asked me if I would celebrate the New Year in Wuhui Town?I said of course.Yu Wen was happy, and asked me if he came to kowtow to me on the night of New Year's Eve, would I give him lucky money?I said it was natural.Fishbone looked very happy, and he walked up and down my house, telling me some ghost stories he had heard from the old people.At dusk, old man Huda came. As soon as he entered the house, he said, "Yuwen, I knew you came here. Whenever outsiders came, you came to exchange things. What did you exchange?"

Yuwen opened the rouge box with a smile.The old man Hu Da scolded, "I've been playing tricks since I was a child, what are you doing with a rouge pancake?"