Chapter 2 Hui'an Pavilion Legend II

The weather is much warmer, and the cotton-padded jacket has long been taken off, and a thin cotton vest is put on outside the jacket when it gets cold in the morning and evening, which is light and soft.The new cloth shoes I wore had a piece of black leather on the front. Old Wang Ma, Xiuzhen's mother, saw my new shoes and said: "These shoes are so strong, they broke the threshold of our house, and your shoes can't be broken!" I am already familiar with the Hui'an Hall, the door of the hall is always open, so I can sneak in at any time.I said sneak in, because I always sneak in behind my family's back. They only know that I often go to Jingwozi to find girls with Song's mother to buy vegetables. When Song's mother enters the oil and salt store, I Just turn around and go to the Hui'an Pavilion.

I entered the Hui'an Pavilion today, but Xiuzhen was not in the room.There is a large glass jar on the Kang table, in which are a few small goldfish swimming around.I asked Mama Wang: "Where's Xiuzhen?" "It's in the courtyard!" "I'll go find her," I said. "Don't mind, she's coming, just wait here and watch the goldfish!" I put my nose against the goldfish bowl and looked in. The goldfish was drinking water one by one while swimming, and my mouth could not help but imitate the fish drinking water one by one.Sometimes a goldfish swims up to me, separated by a layer of glass, and the fish nose and I are the best!I just watched it like this, kneeling on the edge of the kang, my legs were numb, and Xiuzhen hadn't come yet.

I rolled my legs and sat on the edge of the Kang, and waited for a while, but Xiuzhen still didn't come, so I got anxious, slipped out of the room, and went to look for her in the courtyard.The courtyard seems to have been closed all the time, and I have never seen anyone go there.I gently pushed open the cross-yard door and went in. There was a tree of unknown origin in the small yard, which had already grown small green leaves.There are dry fallen leaves on the ground in the corner of the courtyard, and some are rotten.Xiuzhen was probably cleaning, but when I went in, I saw her leaning on the tree trunk with a broom in one hand, and wiping her eyes with the other hand, I walked up to her quietly and looked up at her.She may have seen me, but she ignored me, turned her back suddenly, and cried on the trunk of the tree, she said:

"Xiao Guizi, Xiao Guizi, why don't you want your mother?" How aggrieved and pitiful that voice is!She wept again and said: "I don't take you with me, how do you know Dao'er, it's far away!" I remembered that my mother said that we came from a hometown far, far away. There was an island surrounded by water on all sides. We took a big ship and a big train to come to Beijing.I once asked my mother when I would go back, and my mother said it was early, and it was not easy to come here, so I stayed for a few more years.So is the distant place Xiuzhen mentioned as far away as our island?How could Xiao Guizi run away alone?I felt sorry for Xiuzhen, and I also missed Xiao Guizi, whom I didn't know, tears fell from my eyes.In the blurred eyes of tears, I seem to see that fat baby riding a big goldfish, wearing nothing!

With tears in my eyes, I took a deep breath, in order not to let myself cry, I grabbed Xiuzhen's trouser leg and called her: "Xiuzhen! Xiuzhen!" She stopped crying, squatted down with tears all over her face, put her arms around me, buried her head on my chest and wiped it, and wiped away her tears with my jacket and soft vest, then she raised her head Come to see me smiling, I stretched out my hand to smooth her messy bangs, and couldn't help but say: "I like you, Xiuzhen." Xiuzhen didn't say anything, she stood up while sucking her snot.The weather is getting warmer, so she no longer wears cotton trousers that bind her legs, and now she wears a pair of fat loose-leg trousers.Are her legs thin?Why did the pants look so dangling when the wind blew them.She was skinny all over, and when I squatted down and lay on my chest just now, I saw that back, it looked like a flat plate.

Xiuzhen took my hand and said: "Go inside and help tidy up." There are only two such small rooms in Xiaokuan courtyard. When the door is pushed, there will be a series of ugly squeaking sounds. The sound is not pleasant, as if a thorn has been pierced in the heart.It is strangely cool to come into this dark room from the sun.In the outer room, there are desks, chairs, and bookshelves neatly arranged, and they are covered with dust. I thought to myself, I should ask our Song mother to come and dust them, so that the whole room would be dusted.Dad often said to Mom, why didn't Song's mother wipe it with a damp cloth?But my mother always asks my father not to talk too much, she says this is the Beijing rule.

Going into the back room, the room is a bit smaller, with only a bed and a coffee table.There was a suitcase on the bed. Xiuzhen opened the suitcase and took out a big cotton robe from it. My father also had it, and it belonged to a man.Xiuzhen hugged the big padded robe to her chest, and said to herself: "It's time to turn over some cotton." She took the big cotton robe out of the yard to dry, and I followed.She came in, and I followed.She told me and her to carry the box out to dry in the sun in the yard, and it contained only a pair of gloves, a fedora hat, and some old underwear.She spread out these few pieces of clothing carefully, and picked up a striped gown and said to me:

"I see this gown can only be used as a jacket lining for Xiao Guizi." "That's not it." I opened my jacket and showed it to Xiuzhen, "This is also made from my father's old clothes." "You also use your father's? How do you know that this dress belongs to Xiao Guizi's father?" Xiuzhen asked me with a smile and staring eyes. She was very happy like that, and I was happy when she was happy, but how could I know that it was Xiao Guizi? Her father's?She asked so much that I couldn't answer, I tilted my head and smiled, but she still asked while teasing my chin:

"Say it!" The two of us were squatting next to the box at this time, I looked at her face very refreshingly, bangs were blown to the side by the wind, she seemed to be someone, but I couldn't think of it.I answered her: "I guessed it. Then" I asked her again in a low voice, "What do I call Xiao Guizi's father?" "Call me uncle!" "I already have an uncle." "Is there too many uncles? Call him Uncle Sikang. He is the third uncle, so you can call him Third Uncle." "Third Uncle Sikang," I muttered, "What time will he go home?"

"He," Xiuzhen stood up suddenly, frowned and tilted her head in thought. After thinking for a long time, she said, "It's almost there. It's been a month since I left." As she spoke, she walked into the house again, and I followed her in again, doing this and that, and then following out, moving here and there, and I was so happy to follow out and follow up.At this moment, Xiuzhen's face was pink, and the sides of her nose were covered with dust, and there were small beads of sweat oozing from the tip of her nose and her lips. Such a face looked really pretty.

Xiuzhen wiped the sweat from her nose with her sleeve, and said to me: "Yingzi, will you bring me a basin of water? I need to wipe in the room." I hastened to say: "Yes, yes." The house in the Kuayuan was originally on the same side as the porter's house, and there is only one more door in the Kuayuan, and the water tank and basin are placed under the eaves of the porter's house.I lifted the lid of the water tank, spooned water into the basin, and heard someone in the room talking to Xiuzhen's mother: "Is the girl feeling better?" "Oh! Don't mention it, there is trouble again. Every spring, there will be trouble for a while. These two days are just crying and laughing. How good it is! It's really..." "The fault of this road is that spring makes a lot of mistakes." I took a basin of water, shook and sprinkled it, splashed myself with water, and when I got to the Kuayuan room, there was not much left.Putting the pot on the chair, suddenly the smell of cooking vegetables came from nowhere, I smelled it and remembered something, so I said to Xiuzhen: "I am going home." Xiuzhen didn't hear it, she just rummaged through the drawers. I remembered that I would go to Heng Hutong to wait for Niuer after dinner when I got home. I had a date yesterday. The cold and wet pants stuck to my legs, and my mother scolded as soon as I entered the door: "Just playing in the well all morning? I thought you fell into the well? Look at the water!" While changing my clothes, my mother said, "If you want to know which elementary school in Beijing is good, you should I have been sent to school, and I heard that the primary school attached to the Normal University in Changdian is not bad." Mom said that, and I realized that my father had come back. I got a whole body of water, afraid that my father would beat and scold me. He was very powerful. I shrank my head and looked at my father, ready to be beaten. Fortunately, he didn't pay attention. , smoking a cigarette and reading the newspaper, he casually said, "It's still early, what's the hurry." "If you don't send her to school, she runs all over the street. I can't see her." "Hit if you don't obey!" Dad's tone seemed to be very fierce, but then he turned his face and smiled at me. It turned out that he was scaring me!He added: "I'll tell her about Yingzi's going to school when her uncle comes. Let him take care of it!" After dinner, I went to Heng Hutong to pick up Niu'er. The weather was getting colder, so Niu'er and I went to play in the vacant west wing, where dismantled stoves, chimneys, unused tables, chairs, and beds were piled up.In a broken rattan box, there are a few newly hatched little chickens that I bought recently. The soft little yellow fluff is so fun. Niuer and I squatted and played with the little chickens in the box.Watch the chicks peck at the rice, always eat, always eat, why don't they stop! The chicks couldn't eat enough, but we had enough to see, so we covered the rattan box, and we stood up to play other things.We put two coins on a thin rope and held them in our hands. We kicked the coins. Every time we kicked, the two coins hit the upper of the shoe with a "click" sound.Niu'er twisted her waist when kicking, she looked so delicate.We had a lot of fun this afternoon, if it wasn't for Niu'er when she was hanging her throat again, we don't know how long we would have played. Dad bought a new pen and ink today, and a stack of red tracing paper.In the evening, under the kerosene lamp, he taught me to draw, and first read the words on it: "One to two or three miles, four or five houses in Yancun, six or seven pavilions, eight or ninety flowers." Dad said: "You have to draw one picture a day. Only after the summer vacation can you enter elementary school and pass the exam." In the morning I went to the Hui'an Pavilion to look for Xiuzhen, in the afternoon Niu'er came to look for me in the West Wing, and in the evening I painted red letters, that's how I lived these days.Short wings grew from the yellow hair of the little oily chicken. Niuer and I fed rice, water, and vegetables. Mama Song said not to strain the little chicken’s belly, and she was afraid of being picked up by wild cats. Use a big rock to press the lid of the rattan box, and we are not allowed to open it casually. When Niu'er played with me, she often moaned and chirped. When she was happy that day, she actually started to writhe. , met Zhang Xiucai and mourned..." "What are you singing? Is this just hanging your voice?" I asked "I sang playing flower drums." Niu'er said. She was in a good mood, so she just sang and twisted gently, and I was dumbfounded watching it.She suddenly said to me: "Come! Follow me, I'll teach you." "I can also sing a kind of song." Somehow, I thought I should also show my ability, and suddenly remembered my father once. A song that I sang while chatting with guests, my father taught me later, and my mother said that my father taught me this kind of song is really not big or small! "Then you sing, then you sing." Niu'er pushed me, but I was too embarrassed to sing, she insisted that I sing, so I had to stammer and sing in Hakka: "Whatever you want to do, think about your heart, don't worry about your heart! I think about your heart, and it's your heart that thinks about your heart..." Before I finished counting, Niu'er was already laughing until she shed tears, and I laughed too, those few words were really awkward. "Who taught you? What kind of heart thinks of heart, heart thinks of heart, hahaha! Which country's song is this!" The two of us hugged each other and laughed, talking nonsense about heart and heart, and we couldn't tell who it was What's the meaning. We are so happy, talking nonsense, singing nonsense, playing nonsense, the West Wing is our happy nest, I even dream about it.Every time Niu'er looked out the window when she had played enough, she suddenly shouted: "I have to go back!" After she finished speaking, she ran away, so anxious that she didn't even have time to say "goodbye". Suddenly, for several days in a row, there was no girl in the alley. How disappointed I was, I stood there and waited and waited.I walked slowly towards the well, hoping to meet her, but it was no use.In the afternoon, Jingwozi was not so lively, because the water delivery cars came in the morning, and only the nearby people pushed their own small carts with lead buckets to buy water. I saw Lao Wang, the leader of the class, also pushing the small cart. He came several times. Seeing me standing there, he asked me strangely: "Little Yingzi, why are you so stupid here?" I didn't say anything, I knew what was in my heart.I say: "Where's Xiuzhen?" I thought that if I couldn't wait for Niu'er, I would go to find Xiuzhen, and the yard has been tidied up.But Lao Wang ignored me. He filled two buckets of water and pushed them away. When I was hesitating what to do, a familiar figure suddenly turned from the entrance of Xicaochang, that was Niuer, how happy I was!I ran up to meet her and shouted: "Ni'er! Niuer!" She ignored me, as if she didn't know me, and she didn't seem to hear anyone calling her.I was very strange and followed her, but she gently drove me away with her hand, frowned and blinked, meaning to tell me to go away.I don't know what happened, but there was a tall man a few steps behind her, wearing a blue cloth coat, holding a dirty long cloth bag, and I saw a huqin protruding from the mouth of the bag.I think this must be Niuer's father.Niu'er often said things like "I'm afraid my dad will beat me" and "I'm afraid my dad will scold me". Now that I saw that, I knew I couldn't talk to Niuer anymore, so I turned around and walked home, feeling very uncomfortable.I have a fossil in my pocket, which can be used to write white characters on bricks. When I took it out, I couldn't help but draw along the walls of other people's houses, and then painted on the wall of my house.I thought to myself how meaningless it would be to play without Niuer! Just as I was about to call the door, I suddenly heard the sound of someone running in the alley. It turned out that it was Niuer who came running out of breath. She hurriedly said, "I'll come to you tomorrow." Before I could answer, She ran back to the alley again.The next morning, Niu'er came to see me, and we squatted down in the west wing to watch the little chicken.Lifting the lid of the rattan box, both of us put our hands in to touch the chicken's feathers, and neither of us said a word after touching it like this.I was going to talk, but I didn’t make a sound. I just asked her in my heart: “Niu’er, why haven’t you come to me for so many days?” Why didn't you allow me to talk to you yesterday?" "Girl, you must have something uncomfortable?" It's so strange, these words were all in my heart, and I didn't say them out, but how did she know, she said it with tears? answer me?She didn't speak, and she didn't even use her sleeve to wipe her eyes, she just let her tears drip down in the rattan box, all of which were eaten by the little chicken and millet!I didn't know what to do, but I saw her ear from the side. There was a hole in the earlobe and a red thread was passed through it. Niu'er's ear was not cleaned, and there was a line of black mud on the edge.I looked down along her shoulder again, there was a blue scar on her wrist, I stretched out my hand to lift up her cuff to see, she just woke up, dodged in fright, then turned her head to look at me sadly smile.The morning sun was shining into the west wing, onto her unclean face, her wet and long eyelashes flickered, and tears flowed down the tear pit to her mouth. Suddenly, she stood up, opened her cuffs, lifted the corners of her trousers, and said softly: "Look at my dad playing!" I was squatting, and I reached out and just touched the swollen scars on her legs.I touched it lightly, which made her cry out loud.Because she didn't dare to let out her voice, she wept softly, which was really pitiful.I said, "Why did your father beat you?" She was speechless at the time, and cried for a while before saying: "He doesn't allow me to come out to play." "Is it because you stayed in my house for too long?" Niuer nodded. Because I played at my house for a long time, she was beaten. I was sad and scared. Thinking of that tall man, I couldn't help but say: "Then you go back quickly!" She stood still and said: "He went out early in the morning and hasn't come back yet." "And what about your mother?" "My mother pinched me too, but she didn't care about my coming out. Dad beat her too. If he beat her, she pinched me, saying it was me." Niu'er cried for a while and then told me this Speaking of that, I said that I had never seen her mother. Niu'er said that her mother was a little lame, and she sat on the kang all day long to mend clothes for people to make money. I told Niu'er that we didn't live in Beijing before, but came from a faraway island, and she also said: "We didn't live here before, we lived at Qihua Gate." "Qihua Gate?" I nodded and said, "I know that place." "How come you also know about Qihuamen?" Niu'er asked me strangely. I can't figure out how I know, but I do know, as if someone took me there early in the morning, and I kind of saw it, no, no, no, what I saw was very Fuzzy, maybe it was a dream?So I replied to Niuer, "I dreamed about that place. Is there a city wall? One day, a woman carried a bundle and walked towards the city wall secretly early in the morning..." "Are you telling a story?" "Maybe it's a story," I tilted my head and thought deeply, "Anyway, I know Qihuamen." Niu'er smiled, stretched out her arms and put them around my neck, and I also stretched out my arms to wrap hers around hers.But when I pinched her shoulder, she yelled softly, "It hurts! It hurts!" I quickly let go of my hand, and she frowned again and said, "Even this place is swollen!" "What did you smoke?" "Duster." After a pause, she added: "My dad, and my mom, they" but she stopped talking. "How are they?" "Stop talking, I'll tell you next time." "I know, your father taught you how to sing and wants you to spend money for them." This is what I heard from Song's mother and mother, so I said it all at once. "I want you to make money and beat you, why!" I became angry after I said it. "Hey, drink, you see you know everything, I don't want to tell you about opera, how do you know what I want to tell you!" "What are you going to say? Say it!" "If you are in such a hurry, I won't say anything. If you are nice to me, I have a lot to tell you, but you are not allowed to tell others, and don't tell your mother either." "I won't, we whisper." Niu'er hesitated for a while, then whispered and hastily whispered next to my ear. "I was not born to my mother, and neither was my father." She spoke so quickly, as quickly as a flash of lightning passed, and then it hit my heart like a thunderbolt, which made my heart skip a beat.After she finished speaking, she removed the hand that was attached to my ear, and looked at me with wide eyes, as if waiting to see what I would do after listening to her words.As for me, I just stared at her and couldn't say a word. Although I promised Niu'er not to tell her secret, but after Niu'er left, I kept thinking about this matter, and the more I thought about it, the more worried I became, so I suddenly ran to my mother and asked in a daze: "Mom, am I born to you?" "What?" Mom gave me a strange look, "Why do you think of asking this?" "It's all right if you say it." "Yeah, why not?" Mom said after a pause, "If it wasn't my own, would I love you so much? If you make trouble like this, I'll beat you up a long time ago." I nodded, what my mother said was indeed right, think about Niuer! "Then how did you give birth to me?" I've wanted to ask this for a long time. "How did it happen, um?" Mom thought about it for a while and smiled, raised her arm, pointed to the armpit and said: "It fell out of here." After she finished speaking, she laughed with Mama Song.