Chapter 2 Mr. Big, you are busy all day long, what are you doing?

Wherever Mr. Da goes, he gives people the impression of being in a hurry, as if there is something that can never be finished, and he must take time to do it.It was also as if an invisible spring had been placed on the body by some sorcerer. Once it was tightened by some trivial matter, it would be involuntarily busy all day long.In fact, it is just a "habit" to develop such a temper.But if a person can still maintain his habits after thirty years, we must admit that it is very common and natural for this person to be regarded as a "monster" by others!Several old friends from the same village like to call him "foreigner", which is also a name full of friendship and joking.

This person's age, at first glance, was about forty-five or sixteen years old, but in terms of personality, he seemed to be less than half his age.Unusually thin, with a perpetually dirty face.On the thin cheeks are a pair of small eyes with red silk seams, and a pair of old concave mirrors with black plastic edges are placed on the eyes.When looking at people, I am always confused, as if I can only tell people "I am looking at you" from the direction, but in fact it is not very clear. The nose is wrinkled and shrunken, and two pinches of nose hair stick out of the nostrils like two brushes, hanging on the freshly shaved pointed mouth, leaving some mucus on it as usual.The mouth is shrinking and slightly pointed, as if it is twitching slightly all the time.When one opened it, one could see two gold-covered teeth among the sloppy and uneven arrangement of the teeth, which made it even more incongruous.When speaking, the accent is hoarse, slurred, and the tone is low and sad.Because of my poor hearing, I can't tell if I'm yelling loudly when I hear people talking, so I also develop a habit of yelling.When walking, the two thin legs turn very fast, but when they rush forward, they often collide with people head-on.If others shouted and said: "Don't you have eyes? How can you bump into it!" Mr. Da replied: "Don't you have eyes, don't you see that I am blind!" .He doesn't look good, and he's often and sloppily dressed, so strangers can guess from his air that he's not a businessman, but a little assistant to a detective, or the target of a detective.In addition to being wretched, there is also an "old gun" style everywhere, just like the body and mind have been soaked in smoke cream and smoke for many years, and opium smoke must be used as food in order to continue to survive.However, if you take a closer look at the bones of this portrait, you may find something else.His facial features are quite regular, with big ears and a long face, a high straight nose bridge, broad and protruding forehead, and some kind of sloppy appearance, which can't hide his integrity, enthusiasm, wisdom and ingenuity.As the local saying goes, he is a person with a good inner appearance.

Mr. Da walks around the streets every day, so all the shopkeepers in this city know him and have business or other friendships with him.Those who are peddlers, those who set the butcher's table, those who sell fish and vegetables, those who are brokers in the firewood market, those who deliver letters at the post office and those who work in the customs office, those who preach and practice medicine, and those women who have just lined up on the street--in short, , Those who support the activities of this city or embellish the prosperity of this city all know "Mr. Big", call him "Mr. Big", and are full of kindness and friendship towards him.

Although he always seems to be so busy, he has no fixed goals and tasks waiting to be completed. It is entirely an interest developed from habit, an interest allowed by an idle life.You can stop at any place on the street, tell a few jokes, yell, and then lower your head to study and appreciate the newly arrived goods, medicines, and labels in the shop, ask about the market, ask about the sales, and then He slipped away like a catfish, trying to keep him or her away, like an otter from time to time, squeezing his way through the crowd into a bustling Nanhuo shop, going all the way to the counter, reading the newspaper by the stove, Look here, look there, buy something, grab some rock candy, sesame candy and stuff it into your mouth, or take two mothballs and put it in your pocket. You're doing it again, and you're paying for it?He always said he was doing business, but the store owner took advantage of the situation and stuffed a handful of newly arrived lychees and red dates into his coat pocket, and pushed him out of the store with a smile.As usual, when people in the shop saw him, they would call Mr. Da, sit down and have a cup of tea, you are always busy all day!If you meet a familiar boatman, you will inevitably gossip for a while, or call out "dry relatives", and leave when you make an appointment to drink on the boat.Occasionally, someone who looks like a military officer will hold him back and not relax. "Hometown", "Frontline", "Heaven" and "Underground" have talked a lot. Finally, he must be invited to a restaurant to eat a bowl of mutton noodles, and talk about Qikuo .But the feeling was not out of date, so he stood in front of the noodle restaurant, squeezed a piece of yellow cake that had just come out of the cage into his mouth, and said while eating, "Master, thank you, I have something to go! See you tomorrow! Tomorrow Come to my house to eat beef belly and stewed chicken with winter mushrooms. You are welcome to come, and you will be provided with something to eat. Well, if you have friends, just invite them! I still have a lot of things to do at this time of year!" Really, there is something that needs to be done by him , he himself will never understand.But if other people have something to do, after asking clearly, they will immediately do it for others, but put aside some things that they have to do.

But naturally there are still some things he has to do, first go to a familiar place in the city, order a dick, if there is an old lady, naturally he should stay and listen to complaints such as bone pain, such complaints include the obligation to find dog skin plasters for him .If anyone is playing cards, they just stand behind and casually watch the winners and losers.Then go out of the city and turn to the river, and go on the customs barge to see how many boats have gathered and started that day, and then ask the staff in the customs office to see if there are any famous people passing by.After clarifying what you need to know, walk along the river beach to see the ships docked on the pier, what goods are being unloaded, what are some novelties, or the luggage of a foreign missionary, or the "central" Machines, as usual, he can inquire clearly from the person in charge of customs.And you can ask the sailors what happened upstream and downstream the day before.For any news that is worth noting, he narrates it in another place at another time, and he must also recite the names of the boat owners at the same time.After watching the boat, turn to the ferry pier to stop and see the scenery of the ferry. If you don’t get on the ferry to cross the river for a while, you will first ask the orange pomelo and sugarcane market at the pier. After you negotiate the price, you must choose a large Buy two or three yuan at the beginning of the piece, and give the money to someone first, or ask to send it to a cousin, a friend, or send it back to your home.If the small businessman thinks that Lu Yuan is busy with business and can't get away, and refuses to deliver the goods, Mr. Da must turn his head to look at the Mayang businessman, making an air of breaking up: "Are you going to deliver? If you don't deliver, you will be dragged down!" If a person says: "I don't know the house, I'm afraid I'll get the door number wrong." Mr. Da will definitely say: "You can send it there, and ask for the house number 12 when you get there, you can't make a mistake!" .If he hesitates, he doesn't want it. "Hey, rare your treasure, vitamins, ginseng fruit, pay me back!"

Maybe there happens to be someone on board who knows both sides, smoothing things over and talking: "Silly dog, you just send it, Mr. Da will still lose you? His house will not admit mistakes, and there is a big green tree in front of the door." , hang a big blue plaque, there is a big garden in the door, a big house, a big foreign dog—Mr. You!" After hearing this kind of praise, Mr. Da became happy again, closed one small eye, smiled charmingly, (the smile must be even uglier) took out the wallet again, and put more money in the hand of the little businessman. He paid two cents, "Send it here, this is for you to drink! We are raw once, and acquainted twice.

You don't recognize me.I will help you to publicize, a shipment of oranges will be emptied in three to five days, so you can load up and rush back to Mayang County for the New Year! "He turned back to the person next to him and said: "Old Geng, you know me, good! " "Mr. Da is a man of great benevolence and righteousness. He is well-known. Who doesn't know him!" "What are you talking about, if you have a drink, you should drink it? This year, rice is expensive to 14 yuan a stone. How much wine does one drink per person! This year it won't happen, and I can't pay it back. I can't afford to invite everyone to drink!"

As a human being, his ears are a bit dim, so sometimes he pretends to only hear half a word, and deliberately diverts the conversation.Then I walked over to the shipbuilding office to see who was building a new ship and installing the keel. In short, regardless of the weather, since the house was built six years ago, the order of this person's life has been arranged in that way.Sometimes Mr. Da suddenly disappears in the local area for ten and a half days, and there is no trace of Mr. Da anywhere in the city. Friends can guess that Mr. Da must have left the local area for some business, and is busy at another pier. up.There are only two reasons for this trip: to take a boat back to my hometown of Fenghuang County, 280 miles away, to visit relatives’ graves, or to attend weddings and funerals of relatives and friends.Or take a boat to Changde Mansion and go to Changsha for fun.If I'm interested, I keep going further afield, to Shanghai, Beiping, and Qingdao with my siblings.Shan didn't know where to go, and Shan didn't know how to turn back, everything was by chance; this chance could send his eighty-pound body two or three thousand miles away.If you go up, you must bring some local products back every time, ready to treat guests.If you go down, you can bring more naturally.Fruit trees in the garden, flowers and plants grown in foreign countries, candy from Suzhou, candied fruit from Peiping, apples from Yantai, dried lychees from Guangdong, raisins and cantaloupe from Xinjiang.Seafood seasonings for banquets, milk powder, tomato sauce, French gold confetti paper for walls, brocade cushions for sofas, as well as some books and magazines...all were collected from this unpredictable short-term travel.All the actions seem to come from the same motive, that is, the innocent childlike innocence, mainly to surprise those who are close to him, and he gets a little happiness from the surprise, and Mr. Da is very happy, forgetting toil and money.If you meet a good friend when you come back, please go home to appreciate the travel income, and talk about the "lower" things for a while.As long as the guest puts his thumb up and says with a smile "Mr. Big, you are such a weirdo!", he is satisfied.

If you go to see your younger siblings in Peiping, Shanghai, you will have no prior notice, and when you arrive at a certain place, you will suddenly knock on the door as an unexpected visitor.The purpose of the erratic actions is to surprise and delight the siblings when they first meet.Or hear such complaints, "Brother, why don't you write a letter first, so that I can pick you up!" Mr. Da will pretend to be naughty, and deliberately joke: "I don't want people, am I afraid of being kidnapped and assassinated? I want you to escort me!" "Aren't you very busy? Why did you come here suddenly?"

Mr. Da was even more proud of this, and while wiping the sweat on his forehead with the palm of his hand, he smiled innocently, "You don't think I will come to see you, do you? I have this kind of temper, and I leave as soon as I say, my family members It never occurred to me that I would travel five thousand miles, and no one would know about it, nor would I know about it myself!" "How long are you planning to stay? Two months..." "What? Two months! I have to go back after playing for three days. There are still many things at home that I can't handle, wait for me to go back and cook!"

"Stay for a week and have fun!" "Hi, I've been home in a week" (holds out three fingers) "No more, no less, three days." What he said was of course the truth, and if he stayed for three or five days, he would have to walk again.Because this kind of affirmation seems to give him a little happiness.In fact, maybe the carpenter at home is waiting to be ordered to make a flower stand, a jar of moldy tofu needs to be added with seasoning and wine, a pile of cured meat needs to be smoked by himself, and some new plants need to be fertilized and separated.Not only is the behavior of leaving home unexpected, but it is often unavoidable due to one's own accident, so it is impossible not to go back quickly.But there is a more important reason to be eager to go back. Naturally, some relatives and friends who didn't know he was going out like "winning the championship" were surprised for a while when they first met.The joy of surprise is divided equally.For the sake of faithfulness, although the itinerary is extremely short, and as usual, when you arrive at a place, you must buy the medicines and supplies entrusted by others to buy one by one in the past, so that you can put them in front of your friends at once as a proof. As a result, my friend was unavoidably surprised and delighted, "Ha, you foreigner, you are such a magician! Why do we lose sight of you as soon as we distracted our eyes? In a few days, you will come from Beijing and Shanghai again." We’re back from watching the excitement! All our lives, we’ve been stuck on our heels with a few ropes, unable to walk. You weirdo, you seem to be able to go anywhere in the world, except that you never brought back flat peaches from the royal garden of the Queen Mother’s palace.” Mr. Da closed his small eyes with a smile in this artificial flattery, and pretended to be modest, "Where is it, I am unofficial and light, and I can go on the road if I want to! I have no more important career than you, and I can't let it go! Come to my house for dinner, light meal! You're welcome!" The intention of eating is naturally to make others happy and surprised. Because although the queen mother's flat peaches were never brought back, the Shandong Feicheng peaches with a large bowl mouth might be put on the table after the meal.Maybe the candied dates and apricots from Tong Sanyi in Beiping were also brought back by him from three thousand miles away as a treat for guests to enjoy.Although there are not many things, there is always everything that one expects to find.The important thing is to surprise the fellow countrymen face to face like a magic trick! All behavioral desires stem from the same motivation, that is, to satisfy others and oneself. There are some extraordinary and unexpected changes from ordinary life, and the behavioral desires are full of innocent love.Because of this temperament, he became one of the most interesting characters in the local area, and at the same time, he was also a well-known person. That little innocence was employed in another way for the same purpose, and thus at the same time added to him a peculiar memory and sensibility.Every time he goes to a place, although he only stays for three or five days, Mr. Da must have a clear understanding of the many recent events in that place.What route the Shanghai tram has changed, how many expensive new gadgets have been added to the concession, he will be able to appreciate them all within three days.How many new paintings have been replaced in the Forbidden City in Beiping, what special treasures are there, and how many ancient books and illustrated books are displayed in the library.Qingdao seaside summer house, a certain celebrity lives in a certain number, how much does a certain big hotel cost per day, important or trivial, and anything that can make friends in his hometown happy, he will keep it in mind, and he can answer any questions.And every time this kind of trip brings back some stories and food, it must also bring back some longer-lasting things that can help family members remember, or a calligraphy and painting, a stone, a precious anther.He himself thinks that the most proud thing in his life is that he ran to Qingdao with the same style six years ago, ran for seven days via Shanghai Port, and when he returned home, he found a building from a lot of memories. impression.Three months later, I designed and supervised the construction by myself, and a small part of it was adjusted by myself. On the open space next to the original small building, a half-middle and half-west building was created, with seven rooms of different sizes, upper and lower windows, and stairs. And the railings, the color of the ceiling of the room, the patterns of colored paper on the walls, all are like the building I saw when I was in Qingdao.Mr. Da's intention turned out to be to wait for the return of his brother who was teaching in Qingdao, just like the unavoidable surprise of "Xinfeng's elders" back then! When the war came, China changed completely.The atmosphere of war has affected Mr. Da's family since the beginning.I was afraid that this mountain city would be attacked by air. After Mr. Da sent his family members back to their hometown three hundred miles away, the house was vacated, and he sat down alone to wait for news from the north and the south.Although a younger brother in the north escaped from Peiping, the children stayed in the isolated city and could not get on the road.A younger brother in the south led a regiment of soldiers to the front line, but there was no news after the war broke out.Therefore, in business as usual, Mr. Da has added an extra concern for the safety of people far away.As for this small waterside city, the river transportation was temporarily suspended at first, and it resumed soon after.Immediately, military transportation began on the road across the river. At least two to three hundred large trucks and other special vehicles passed by every day, and there were also one or two thousand foreigners on large and small vehicles who were transferred to this place.Not long after, the personnel and materials of the central government were also evacuated to this place, and a hospital for wounded soldiers was established.The training camps of various citizens have even decorated this small city with a bit of war atmosphere.This kind of business affecting the local area must be more important than other personal life changes.However, when Mr. Da is affected by all these, it will naturally increase anxiety.He became a busier figure in the local area, busier with news of the country's war and the safety of his family.The first is the brother's family living in Peiping, whose living conditions have been completely isolated.The second is another brother, who brought the regiment of soldiers from his hometown, where to fight, what the situation was like, and what the result was. He couldn't get any information from various aspects.Later, although I indirectly knew that before the fall of Hangzhou, this army had defended the Jiashan area, and that my brother had been treated in a hospital in Hangzhou after being injured. Once Hangzhou fell, the news was cut off. Mr. Da couldn't get the information he needed, so instead of walking around the streets every day, he also went to sit with a few acquainted officers, then went to the post office to check letters and telegrams, and asked the long-distance telephone office to see if there was any call from the left-behind office in Changsha. , and cross the river to the bus station to see if there are any soldiers in this unit who have returned from the front.But all efforts were in vain.Until he felt hopeless in terms of personnel, Mr. Da still retained an illusion, thinking that he must still be isolated in some small place in the occupied area, and he would escape and return soon. According to the usual situation, Mr. Da must have quietly left the house and ran straight ahead to see what happened.Now the war is still tense, and the central and large agencies have moved up one after another. The situation of the front-line troops is mostly kept secret, and the transportation is inconvenient. The war is still changing, and there is a tendency to gradually extend to Nanchang and Wuhan.After the fall of Nanjing, the inland area and parts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang lost contact. If the injured hadn’t left the hospital in time, or their vehicle crashed while turning to Zhejiang-Jiangxi Road, they must still be in the occupied area. Because of an inexplicable belief, Mr. Da always thought that he might get some news by chance when he went to the street.Even the most unfortunate news is better than hanging around.I didn't want to be on the street but got excited with a few political school students for a while.Now I am looking for those students on the street, although I have seen many students, but I have never met the original few.So I was going to cross the river, and after boarding a square-headed ferry, the boat hadn't left the shore for a while.After a while, the ferryboat across the river was heading this way. A soldier on board had sharp eyes and shouted from a distance: "My lord, my lord, someone is looking for you! Your cook is looking for you everywhere along the river!" Mr. Da only heard the first few words, and replied with a smile as usual: "Someone is looking for me. What are you looking for? I don't owe anyone money for printing. Could it be that Wang Ba Tanghuai of the county wants me to go to the yamen for a lawsuit? " "It's not someone else, it's Lao Song, the cook in your family. He said that there is a phone call in Changsha, and he is waiting for you to answer it. It's your head of the team!" "Hey, did the leader call?" Without waiting to ask about the situation, I jumped from the bow of the boat to the river beach. The line of sight was not very good, and when the ferry swayed, the distance was inaccurate. When I reached the ground, one foot was stuck in the mud by the river, and what I pulled out was a bare one. The white feet, everyone on board laughed.Mr. Da didn't pay attention at all, and while he was fishing for shoes and socks from the mud, he said to himself: "Ha, the commander has a call!" After half an hour, Mr. Da returned home and urged another servant to clean up every part of the building, and replaced the window curtains with new ones.And for the officers who returned from injury, all the application items were prepared. When the cook at home came back, he lit a few mouthfuls of meat smoke and drank a glass of wine at the little woman who was friendly across the river. He was afraid that Mr. Da would smell the smell when he went upstairs, so he stood in the middle of the yard, facing the corridor with his head up. Mr. Da on the road said with a bit of complaint: "Master, where have you gone? I am not looking for you anywhere in the world! The head of the regiment has called and wants you to answer it. I will look for you all over the city, and I will search all corners of the door with lanterns and torches, but I can't find you!I thought you went to Heshangzhou to buy grapefruits! Mr. Da kept silent and listened to the cook's lies until the cook realized that he had talked too much, which was more than needed, then Mr. Da pretended to be very angry and cursed intentionally: "Master Song, it's okay, it's okay. You didn't see me, I know you went to the newspaper office to publish a newspaper, and posted a missing person notice by the city gate. You have been found in the sky and the earth, why didn't you look for me at the 'aircraft carrier' across the river? You think I don't know your purpose of crossing the river. Once I arrived at the bitch's house, I sat for a long time to discuss the matter of recruiting a man to come to the door, to make the bitch happy. I even used the lantern torch to illuminate the corner of the door. How many lanterns and torches did you use? Let's do the math... You come up and let me smell it, but if you don't eat meat at the 'aircraft carrier' house, I'll add 30 yuan to your salary a month." The cook Lao Song knew Mr. Da's temper well, and knew that there must be happy things when there are many jokes in his mouth, so he stopped using other lies and said, "Master, the head of the team is calling. I heard magpies in the morning, so I knew it." There must be a happy event!" "Congratulations! When the team leader comes back, I want him to beat you 20 times first and fire you, so that you can cross the river and become the son-in-law of that bitch. It will be your great joy." After a while, Mr. Da announced to his two friends downstairs that the head of the regiment had called, and he had arrived in Changsha, his injuries were not serious, and he would go home in the head's car tomorrow.When I was talking about this, I told the cook Lao Song to say: "Go to Hong'en Hospital quickly, see if Dr. Zhang is at home, and invite me to dinner at home. He said, you are the student representative. I don't know yet. The officer was an experienced person, and he wanted to give the soldier some special education during the conversation, but the result of the conversation was just the opposite. Only then did he find that the officer knew much more about doctrines and lines than them. Therefore, there was also a feeling of resentment, thinking that this was a change A retired soldier, life is full of petty bourgeois atmosphere, hopeless. I have no interest in continuing to take the several military courses that I planned to learn from this officer. Very busy. So everyone left this "national hero" and turned to other meaningful promotional activities. The residence returned to the tranquility it had been half a month ago. When the doctor came, he saw that the big room upstairs was empty, with many chairs, a three-foot-square blackboard hanging on the wall, and a box of chalk on the coffee table.I know that it is one of the owners of the house, the brother of an officer, who specially prepares for young students to go to military studies. But looking at the situation, we can see that this kind of preparation is in vain.The officer sat alone on a rocking chair in front of the corridor, flipping through a small military map.It seems very quiet, and it seems that this kind of quietness is unbearable. The doctor said, "Commander, you look much better. You should walk around. The weather is fine, so go for a walk outside the city. Riding a horse is also harmless. Your horse is getting fat after a long time. I'm afraid it won't run. Man and beast must move!" The officer said, "Really, everything seems to be fine. Now I only feel a little numbness in my legs when I walk, and I don't feel anything else. I don't want to go out with a brace, because it's so close to Zhaoyao. I really don't want anyone to know me. who is it!" "But there are already many people who know about it. Especially those students, they all like you and worship you." "Those lovely students?" "It's those people, don't they want to teach you lessons?"