Chapter 5 Lai Mingsheng in "Sui Chu" and his "giant self-image"

In the novel "Sui Chu", the author Bai Xianyong still uses a calm and objective narrative method.Take an all-powerful point of view and write in the third person.The whole novel is mainly based on the dialogue of the characters: the background of the story is provided by the dialogue, the development of the plot is promoted by the dialogue, and the most amazing thing is the character of the character, which is vividly expressed through the content and tone of the dialogue.In "New Year's Eve", Bai Xianyong has indeed created a flesh and blood, audible, very pitiful and unforgettable character-Lai Mingsheng with real, natural, but colorful dialogues.

The time involved in the development of the plot is only a few hours; from the beginning to the end, the writing is just the "reunion dinner" that Lai Mingsheng ate at the home of Liu Yingchang and his wife on New Year's Eve.But because of the "old talk" when drinking and eating, we learned the story of Lai Mingsheng's life.Lai Mingsheng has been a soldier all his life.Due to old age, he has been retired for a year, and now he is a comprador in the kitchen of the Veterans Hospital, the so-called "cooker" in the army.He was the same age as the Republic of China, and when he was a teenager, "he went to beat Sun Chuanfang with the revolutionary army"; the peak of his life was the days when he was a company commander in Sichuan during the Anti-Japanese War, and then participated in the "Battle of Taierzhuang" ", the experience of escaping death is the most glorious and sacred record of his life in his memory.The memory of this period of prime of life has become the only spiritual nourishment for Lai Mingsheng, who is out of luck today, to continue to survive.In this way, he, who was very poor, "had to spend a lot of money" on this New Year's Eve, buying wine, chicken, and candles, and rushed all the way from Tainan to Taipei in order to get to know him and his wife. Many old acquaintances in the "past" - keep a new year, talk about old times, and relive the glory of life that has passed away for a long time, but still remains because it has been condensed into a solid memory.

Lai Mingsheng is one of the typical tragic characters who refuse to face reality and look for the meaning of life in retrospect.But he is not dry and cold like some characters in the film.This is not because he does not know that his age and identity today are different from before, on the contrary, he can see this quite clearly; but because he feels that the blood of his life once flowed into the main artery of the country's life, and his personal destiny was once connected with the country's life. Tightly bound by destiny, he harbors a fixed "giant" (or "hero") selfimage of himself.And when the relentless years gradually robbed his youth and gradually eroded his physical body, he insisted on maintaining that fixed and identical self-image.The reality that Lai Mingsheng couldn't face was not the fact that he was downgraded from company commander to "cook head".Not even the fact that he was old.What he cannot accept is the cruel fact that "time can change everything, irreversibly".And the root of his tragedy is that he insists on clinging to this self-image that is getting farther and farther away from the truth in the flowing time; dreaming that "change" is only temporary, as if as long as he quickly drives away the bad days, he will Back to the good old days.

Lai Mingsheng himself has never realized that he is "deceiving himself".But we readers, under the arrangement of the author, can clearly see the big gap between Lai Mingsheng now and himself in his mind.This gap is the main irony of this novel, and it is also the place where people feel the most sympathy for him. First of all, we noticed that when the author described Lai Mingsheng's appearance, appearance, and behavior, he deliberately introduced him as a "giant" who had gone through vicissitudes of life, so as to fit Lai Mingsheng's self-image: ... His long hair, which has reached the top of his head, is like a steel brush, with the roots standing upright; his dark skin is densely dotted with freckles, and when he smiles, his face is wrinkled and rippling. It seems to be pressed in a circle.He has a huge frame, sitting a head taller than others, a pair of giant palms, knuckles like ten tree roots.

He has an "incredibly thick voice", thick speech, and a fondness for laughing.The way he expressed his love to Liu Ying (Liu Yingchang's ten-year-old son) was to "stretch out his giant palm and slap Liu Ying's clean-shaven scalp."When he spoke, he slapped his thigh, and when he got excited, he would "suddenly jump up and slap the table violently", "slap all the coals in the hot pot so that they jumped up".Such descriptions, in addition to reflecting Lai Mingsheng's heroic, rough, and unyielding character, make this character look like a giant made of iron in the eyes of readers.

When we observe the gap between Lai Mingsheng and his "self-image", we can follow two clues.One is to study his speech performance and compare it with his behavior performance.The second is to analyze the views of other characters in the novel on Lai Mingsheng, and then compare it with Lai Mingsheng's views on himself to see the difference. I have already mentioned that the dialogue of the characters is the backbone of this novel.The success of this novel is mainly due to the facsimile and vividness of the dialogue.First of all, I would like to mention that Yingchang Liu, his wife and Mingsheng Lai are both from Sichuan: Yingchang Liu is "a native Sichuan dialect", and Mrs. Liu "speaks Sichuan dialect, and the words come out one by one, as if they don't stick to the teeth." ; Lai Mingsheng's Sichuan dialect is "thick Sichuan accent", and the phonology of Sichuan dialect echoes in their dialogue.However, when Bai Xianyong deals with local dialects, he generally only selects the essence, captures the specific tone, and stops at the purpose of "fidelity" and "lifelike", which is not at all as tricky and difficult to understand as some dialect literature.In other words, a reader who does not understand a certain dialect can roughly fully understand what the characters in Bai Xianyong's novels say in dialect.Sichuan's life is quite similar to Mandarin, so it may not be too difficult for the author to successfully achieve this in "New Year's Eve", but like in "Forever Yin Xueyan", because Shanghai dialect is very different from Mandarin, the author conveys the place vividly. At the same time, the accent is not confusing to people, which is really rare.However, the use of Bai Xianyong's dialect is worthy of a special discussion, and when it comes to Bai Xianyong's brilliant technique in writing dialogues, the use of dialect is only a small part of it, so I will stop here now.

Lai Mingsheng's character is mainly revealed by the content and tone of his own conversation.From his conversation, we can feel his high self-esteem everywhere.Because he felt that his past, his blood and sweat, had helped to create the entire history of the Republic of China, and he still retains that arrogance, that indomitable spirit that is no one else than me.He is well aware of his old age and humble status: things that show his "declining status" such as being a "cook head" or being cheated out of retirement pay by mountain women are all mentioned by himself in his conversations.He is not ashamed of these facts, because he lives entirely in the "past"; looking back on the past gives him an awe-inspiring dignity.Among the many things that Lai Mingsheng said during the New Year’s Eve dinner, except for a section when he was drunk, he complained about his current situation (I just can’t do the big-footed asshole thing, but I can’t do it now Besides, what we feel is always his awe-inspiring self-esteem, not self-pity. The brilliance of the "past" shrouded him, apparently making him blind to the "present" and unaware of it.

It is very interesting to observe the gradual changes in the tone and content of Lai Mingsheng's speech under the influence of alcohol during the drinking process.When he was sober, Lai Mingsheng maintained his normal self-cultivation. When he was a guest, he didn't speak foul language, and his attitude was quite modest.But it is not difficult for us to feel that behind this "cultivation", he has a high self-esteem.First of all, he is very self-conscious and proud of his tall stature ("Fortunately, I am tall, and I held the pair of candles on my head so that no one smashed it"). He called himself "Big Brother" and called Commander Liu The husband and wife are called "brothers and sisters", Liu Ying is called "boy", and Mrs. Liu's cousin and her boyfriend are called "Miss Li Zhu" and "Brother Yu"; The pride of Big Brother and old-timer.He asked Liu Ying what he wanted to do in the future, and Liu Ying replied "Commander-in-Chief of the Army", which made everyone laugh, but Lai Mingsheng praised: "What a big tone! The boy wants it. Your Uncle Lai is as big as you, and has a bigger heart than you." It needs to be high." Lai Mingsheng said that the dozen Kinmen sorghum he brought was not bought, but a gift from a former subordinate: "Fortunately, he still remembers me as an old officer, but I forgot about him." Show how important he feels about himself.After his unintentional or subconscious "reminder", Battalion Commander Liu immediately said "You are also my old officer" and wanted to toast him.Then Mrs. Liu also joined in, "everyone at the table stood up, and they all rushed to Lai Mingsheng to call 'Old Sir', and wanted to toast him with wine."Lai Mingsheng was very modest at first, saying that a majestic battalion commander, how could he call a group of men "old officers".But after pushing back for a while, he "smiled and drank a glass of Kinmen sorghum with a raised head, then sat down, smacked his lips, and drank a pinch of hairy belly to drink."With just a few words of description, we can see Lai Mingsheng's contented look at that time.

Lai Mingsheng has spent his whole life in the army. Although he has probably never held a higher position than a company commander, he has a general and fixed image of the identity of a "soldier"; yourself, become one.Any behavior that does not conform to this image is, in his view, a kind of desecration of military status.So when he discovered that Yu Xin, a young government student, had only drank half a cup of sorghum without killing it, "he immediately seemed offended," accusing: What words! ... Ladies and gentlemen.Soldiers drink, can there be anything left in the glass?Brother Yu, when I was your age, Sanhua and Moutai were served in bowls!The first day he was so drunk that he collapsed on his horse, and the next day he still charged forward.If you can't drink, can you still be a soldier?Kill it, kill it.

Yu Xin could barely drink it down, and Lai Mingsheng quickly sifted the wine into his glass again.Li Zhu explained to Lai Mingsheng that Yu Xin really didn't know how to drink, but Lai Mingsheng didn't take it seriously and said, "Miss Li Zhu, don't feel bad. A few cups of sorghum can be drunk by a young man?" To give some "advice", as a bachelor, he actually talked about how to get along with a couple, and advised Yu Xin to "be like your battalion commander Liu, and treat your wife well in the future".From this, the topic turned to women, and he described how last year, because he "moved his heart for a while" and wanted to get married, he was abducted by a young mountain widow who had more than 30,000 yuan in retirement money.Attentive readers will notice that Lai Mingsheng is quite drunk at this time, his "cultivation" has begun to decline, and his words and words are much "thicker" than before. For example, he started to use the word "fart" ( "That money is not worth a fart in the eyes of rich people", "Wild women in the mountains don't have a conscience"), and called himself "Lao Tzu" for the first time ("When I left, I still took Lao Tzu's Stuff was stolen").After the narration, he looked Yu Xin up and down, and said: "If I can still be like him, that wild woman——drive her away, she won't want to go!" However, in his mind, the young and handsome Yu Xin , Can you really compare yourself with your past self?otherwise.He said: "Brother Yu, I'm not bragging. When I tied the diagonal belt back then, I'm afraid I was a bit more majestic than you."

Then, he called himself "covering his face with wine", recalled the past of "cutting boots", and explained how when he was a cavalry company commander in Chengdu, he was seduced by an aunt of their battalion commander, had an affair with her, and how he cut off his boots. Their battalion commander's boots. (We have noticed that this battalion commander is a "little warlord" and not a good soldier, so "having an affair" with his concubine obviously does not damage the image of a soldier in Lai Mingsheng's mind.) This memory of the past vigorous youth adds to the After drinking, Lai Mingsheng was stunned for a while, then suddenly jumped up and slammed the table, gritted his teeth and said, "Damn it! What a fine-skinned, white-fleshed woman!" After that, he often referred to himself as "Lao Tzu".He said that the battalion commander was suspicious, "The bastard wants me to go to 'Taierzhuang' to die!" The topic naturally shifted to the most sacred and glorious past that Lai Mingsheng treasured in his heart. Yu Xin excitedly asked Lai Mingsheng because the instructors were talking about the history of the Anti-Japanese War and the "Battle of Taierzhuang" in the military academy, "Have you ever participated in the 'Taierzhuang'?" Lai Mingsheng didn't answer, he grabbed a handful of fried peanuts and put them straight into his mouth, chewing hard. After a while, he turned his head and looked at Yu Xin with a snort and a smile and said: "'Tai-er-zhuang-', Brother Yu, these three words are not mentioned casually." Lai Mingsheng was full of contempt for the instructors of the military academy who taught the Battle of Taierzhuang without experiencing it.He suddenly picked up the sweater and opened the shirt, revealing a large bright red shiny round scar on his chest. It turned out that this was the mark left by half of his chest being bombarded off during the Battle of Taierzhuang.This round scar is the most glorious record in his life, "rare than 'Blue Sky and White Sun'", "With this thing, I am qualified to tell you about 'Taierzhuang'. People who don't have this thing want to talk about it Is it?" At this time, Lai Mingsheng, because the topic touched the "sacred place" in his heart, and at the same time he was deeply affected by alcohol, he had completely lost the modesty he had when he was sober. Pride, contempt for others who have no "past".His "giant" self-image, so stubbornly entrenched in his heart, made him unaware that the past was gone forever; only with ideas, only with the spirit, without the support of a strong body, he could no longer be the same as his former self. compared.So when Commander Liu persuaded him to drink slowly, he didn't take it seriously. He said: "Is this idea that Taiwan's Kinmen sorghum can make my brother drunk? You forgot that your brother has drunk several jars of Moutai in Guizhou on the mainland." ?” His words reveal his contempt for Taiwan, which symbolizes the “present,” and his longing for the mainland, which symbolizes the “past.”Then he said to Battalion Commander Liu: "Don't say that my brother becomes the battalion commander. Even if you are a star, if you don't look at my brother's face, I won't be able to invite me in the eight-person sedan chair today." A drunken remark, but nakedly exposed Lai Mingsheng's self-image of a giant who has become a phantom without knowing it. The drunken Lai Mingsheng complained a few words about his current situation, then shook his head and said, "How old is the Republic of China this year, and how old is your elder brother... What are you still wondering about now?... There are only a few bones left. I can’t let go of not going back to my hometown.” Here, even if Lai Mingsheng himself is not “arrogant” enough to compare himself to the Republic of China, the author’s insinuation is obvious.In fact, when the author described Lai Mingsheng's appearance at the beginning of the novel, he specifically mentioned that he was wearing a set of "Navy blue serge Chinese tunic suit with worn lines". Mrs. Liu stopped Lai Mingsheng from drinking again.Lai Mingsheng struggled to stand up, slapped his chest hard twice, and said in a hoarse voice: "Sister and sister, you have underestimated your elder brother. Although your elder brother is a little older, this air is still iron-clad." So he left He set up a posture on the table, and he danced and punched in front of the crowd, showing off his kung fu.Mrs. Liu smiled and dragged him to the back to wash his face. Before he left, Lai Mingsheng turned around and said that when he "called back to Sichuan" in the future, he could still lift at least ten or eight cooking pot heads.Soon, there was a sound of vomiting from the bathroom. Lai Mingsheng fell asleep drunk.Originally planned to play mahjong all night, but finally failed.It turned out that he was the one who boasted that he was the best at "walking in the garden" and agreed that "no one is allowed to leave the table tonight until dawn".But now, even though he "has the heart", he is "powerless"; his spirit is still there (before he fell asleep, he specifically asked Commander Liu to "take a few hands, and he will pick him up later"), but his body couldn't support it.Once he fell asleep, of course he couldn't get up.Even the small promise of showing Liu Ying the firecrackers was not kept.There is a long distance between Lai Mingsheng today and his self-image. Now let's talk about the other characters in this novel and their views on Lai Mingsheng. Battalion Commander Liu and Lai Mingsheng are old friends, fellow villagers, peers, colleagues, with similar backgrounds.But he is a little younger than Lai Mingsheng, and he has not yet reached the retirement age. "A battalion commander can say whether he is big or small, and he has hundreds of people under him."Therefore, his "status", in terms of occupation, is different from that of Lai Mingsheng, and has not "declined".In addition, an even bigger difference is that Commander Liu has a family; he has a good wife whom Lai Mingsheng thinks can only be obtained by "cultivating in a previous life", and a lively and naughty son who is only ten years old and needs to be taken care of.Therefore, the current real life is still meaningful to Liu Yingchang and his wife; although the review of the "past" brings them warmth, it can only be said to be an "adjustment" of life, not the "whole" of life. Battalion Commander Liu and Lai Mingsheng were originally brothers in need, and they also called each other brothers. During the conversation, people could feel their true brotherhood.However, the Lius and his wife's sincere friendship with this "Brother Lai" is mixed with a considerable amount of pity and connivance.They can see Lai Mingsheng's weaknesses that he can't see and can't understand, but based on general human feelings, as well as sympathy and friendship for Lai Mingsheng, they pamper him, be easygoing with him, and tolerate him.During the conversation during the "reunion dinner", we repeatedly felt this attitude of the Lius.It is often through the "reminder" of a certain sentence by Lai Mingsheng that they quickly agree to say a sentence or two that may be sincere or not very sincere to help affirm Lai Mingsheng's "giant" self-image that they know to be illusory.Here are a few examples: Lai Mingsheng: "Fortunately, he still remembers me as an old officer, but I forgot about him." Liu Yingchang: "Brother, you are also my old officer, so let me toast you first." Lai Mingsheng: "Brother Yu, I didn't brag , when I tied the oblique belt back then, I'm afraid I was a bit more majestic than you." Commander Liu: "Brother was very unrestrained back then." Lai Mingsheng: "Is this idea that Taiwan's Jinmen sorghum can make my brother drunk? You forgot how many jars your brother has drunk from Kweichow Moutai in mainland China?" Commander Liu: "We know how big brother is." Mrs. Liu is a kind-hearted woman. Like her husband, out of pity and kindness, she said some ironic words, which made Lai Mingsheng happy.But her friendship with Lai Mingsheng came from her husband, so her view of Lai Mingsheng is more "objective" than Commander Liu.Although she also sincerely called "Old Chief" and supported Lai Mingsheng's self-image at the same time, she saw the real him quite clearly; it seemed that she half-jokingly and half-seriously wanted to introduce him to "We sell cigarettes at the street corner" The proprietress of the old man", on the one hand, it certainly showed her concern, but on the other hand, it also somewhat revealed her true valuation of his identity.Her "tolerance" component is far better than "understanding"; when she sees Lai Mingsheng drunk, she can calmly "snatch the bottle away".After all, she is like an ordinary housewife, who is more interested in cooking than in understanding friends; when Lai Mingsheng is so excited to live in the past again, what she cares about is "Ants Climb the Tree" that no one has tasted her specialty.After Lai Mingsheng was drunk, she shook her head and sighed to Yu Xin and Li Zhu and said: "Drunk... I've known it for a long time, it's like this every time. Our elder brother likes to drink, but his alcohol capacity is actually not very good." These few sentences, in addition to revealing Mrs. Liu's objective view and tolerant attitude towards Lai Mingsheng, also let readers know that such things have happened many times, so it is not surprising.And the last sentence "In fact, his drinking capacity is not very good", touches an interesting question: Is his current drinking capacity not very good, or his drinking capacity has always been not very good?This leads to a very thought-provoking question: Lai Mingsheng's "self-image" is of course unrealistic now.But what about before?In his prime, did he really fully conform to the image of a giant in his mind?Or because my youth has passed away, in the sweet and sour warmth of "looking back", I painted a few more ideal colors for my past self?Did the self in Lai Mingsheng's mind really exist? ...However, if you think about it along this line, the "irony" of the story is too strong to bear.And I think such irony is not the original intention of the author.So let's have fun, forget it. In the article "The World of Bai Xianyong's Fiction", I discussed that the characters in the novel can be roughly divided into three types: the first is the person who lives completely in the "past"; the second is the person who accepts the reality but also looks back at the "past" from time to time The third is the person who abandons the "past", or does not have the "past", but fully represents the "now".In "Sui Chu", Lai Mingsheng belongs to the first type, and Liu Yingchang and his wife belong to the second type.The remaining three supporting characters, Li Zhu, Yu Xin and Liu Ying, belong to the third type.These three young people came to Taiwan because they were young and ignorant, or were born in Taiwan. They cannot have a deep understanding and understanding of the mainland representing the "past" and the vicissitudes of life experienced by the previous generation. pity.Liu Ying is just a child, let alone.Both Yu Xin and Li Zhu are obviously in their early twenties, they are very polite and kind-hearted young men and women.This can be seen from the fact that they sacrificed the rare opportunity to be alone and agreed to stay in Liu's house to accompany Lai Mingsheng to have dinner and play cards.But because they don't know Lai Mingsheng well, and they don't have the kind of friendship that the Lius have for him, their views are completely objective and rational, and they don't get involved with their own feelings at all.In this way, when Lai Mingsheng excitedly narrated the earth-shattering experience he gained with his own flesh and blood when the Japanese ghosts fought against Jize, Yu Xin recited as if he was behind a layer of glass: "That battle was really a battle of our national army. The glory!" In fact, Bai Xianyong compared Yu Xin and Lai Mingsheng in many ways.Lai Mingsheng's appearance (steel brush-like short hair, oversized frame, dense freckles on his face, etc.), and his "Navy Serge Zhongshan Suit so that the lines can be worn" all imply that he is an upright and unyielding man who has gone through vicissitudes. He pays no attention to form and appearance, pays attention to spiritual essence, and is a figure representing the "past" who is stubbornly conservative in the old Chinese tradition.On Yu Xin's "straight, light mud-colored American military dress", "golden...collar badge", "black tie", neatly shaved hair, and the actions of arranging the tie in front of the mirror before leaving, etc. It implies that he is alienated from the tradition, has been quite westernized, is able to adapt to the environment, pays attention to the form and appearance, lacks the depth of content, and is quite complacent.This does not necessarily mean that Yu Xin is not as good as Lai Mingsheng.But in Bai Xianyong's vision, because Yu Xin had no "past" and was born at an untimely time, he could not help but be doomed to be "superficial", a "replica" or "fake" with similar image but different substance.Such a somewhat arbitrary "predetermination" (Predetermination), of course, is in order to match the whole structure and the consistent theme of "comparison between the past and the present". Li Zhu is a good girl, shy, polite and well-mannered.But of course, because she has no "past", like Yu Xin, she cannot understand Lai Mingsheng's mood.She agreed to stay with Lai Mingsheng to have dinner and play cards, obviously mainly because of affection, so when he passed out and Mrs. Liu suggested that she and Yu Xin go out to play, she seemed to be relieved of a big burden and "quickly stood up".During the meal, she regarded Lai Mingsheng's tragic performances that made the readers—through the author's success—pity and pain as comic performances; before leaving, she giggled and said, "Brother Lai looks so funny after drinking. "Actually, not only Li Zhu Yu Xin, but even Commander Liu and his wife often couldn't understand Lai Mingsheng's feelings.In this way, when Lai Mingsheng narrates the past, when he is infinitely emotional (such as after describing the "boots cutting" incident), or when he makes the most heartbreaking actions for sympathetic readers (such as exposing the scar on his chest, performing with drunken boxing), but the people eating at the same table only saw the superficial funnyness, and "laughed loudly", "laughed and turned his head away", "covered his mouth and smiled and lowered his head", "laughed forward and backward Yang".Bai Xianyong uses this contrasting description technique to express Lai Mingsheng's true "isolation".Completely "isolated".Even the closest brother in distress cannot understand the deepest sorrow of his heart.This kind of sadness of being isolated from the world and unable to communicate with others, the so-called "alienation", is popular among modern people all over the world, and it is also a major theme of modern Western literature. As for Liu Ying, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Liu, because he was young and ignorant, of course he couldn't understand Lai Mingsheng's heavy heart.On this New Year's Eve, his mind was almost entirely focused on the game of "flashing the fireworks", and his interest in Uncle Lai could be said to be limited to his promise to "explode the electric cannon in his hand" (Xiao Children are always like this, if they are not like this, they are not "true").During the meal, he didn't say much, except for the naive answer mentioned earlier that he wanted to be the "commander-in-chief of the army", every sentence was related to "setting off firecrackers".His words, the most noticeable, have two sentences.When Lai Mingsheng recounted his experience of escaping from death in Zaoze, he was excited by the memories of "Taierzhuang" and "suddenly became stuttering". ...At this moment, there was a cracking sound outside the window, and two strong white lights flashed on the window.Liu Ying, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly jumped up and ran to the door, shouting together: "They're setting off Kongming lanterns." Battalion Commander Liu cursed and stretched out his hand to catch Liu Ying, but he had already slipped out of the door and turned around and shouted: "Uncle Lai, come and set off firecrackers with me later, don't be a scalper!" The two sentences Liu Ying said here, the first one, made the readers feel nervous after hearing the story of "Taierzhuang", and suddenly realized that the "exploding sound" outside the window and the "strong white light" on the window were just people's jokes. Put Kongming lanterns.How ironic the author is to compare it with the artillery fire of "Taierzhuang"!The word "you" in Liu Ying's second sentence, "Don't be a scalper again", makes us guess for the first time that similar situations have happened before.Later, when Mrs. Liu said to Li Zhu, "It's like this every time", our speculation was proved. Bai Xianyong arranged Lai Mingsheng's tragedy to happen on New Year's Eve, which is very meaningful.First of all, it is ironic to sit around and have a "reunion dinner" when you can't go back to your hometown.The vicissitudes of blood and tears of a veteran who has experienced fierce shells and wars are also placed in a festive festival where firecrackers and fireworks are set off. In contrast, a sharp ironic effect is produced.In addition, in the first paragraph of the novel, Bai Xianyong, in a few words describing the New Year’s Eve evening scene in Taipei City, mentioned that “the lights of each house were turned on earlier, as if to rush away the remaining years of this moment, ready to go It's like welcoming another new year"; and the last few lines of the novel are: "The sound of firecrackers around is getting denser and denser, the New Year's Eve has come to an end, and another new year is beginning to come to Taipei City." Bai Xianyong emphasized "welcoming the new year" ( Chasing away bad days and welcoming good days) is implying that Lai Mingsheng cannot face the fact that "time has changed everything irrevocably", and also implying that he insists on holding on to an unrealistic self-image.Of course, the allusions to the state of the country in today's society are obvious, so there is no need to elaborate. We have analyzed and discussed the man Lai Ming Sheng in some detail, and seen the gap between him today and his fixed self-image, which, although unrealistic indeed, is tantamount to nothing at all. Phantom of value?The author apparently thinks otherwise.The author obviously believes that although Lai Mingsheng is old and deceives himself in his dreams, because he has been unwilling to give up spiritually and does not bow to reality, he has maintained his dignity as a human being.The gradual aging of the physical body is an absolutely irresistible destiny for human beings.Under this innate "limitation", as long as one once truly and passionately enjoyed the glory of life and retains a memory, the light of this memory will still illuminate the remaining life that is gradually withering.Just like the red candle that Lai Mingsheng brought was two feet tall and as thick as a child's arm. Because of his height, he held it above his head so that no one would smash it. Brightened up a lot." However, the pair of red candles finally "burned a large part, and the candle holder was dripping with wax oil".Memory, no matter how strong and lasting it is, no matter how brilliant and splendid it is, one day, it will be reduced to ashes and nothingness with the death of the body.This is the eternal sorrow of mankind.No wonder Lai Mingsheng, who was drunk, suddenly vomited in pain when Mrs. Liu used a "small foreign knife" to remove the wax oil on the clothes.