Chapter 19 Thirteen nights

That year, because I wanted to finish a novel with the West Lake and the temperament of Hangzhou citizens as the background, I lived in a guest room facing the lake in the Dongshou guest room of the Huizhong Hotel in Lihu.From the beginning of July in the late summer to the end of September in late autumn, the days passed day by day, and the novel I planned to write still hadn’t written a single word.Or go to the banner to drink, or climb the mountains near Geling, or hire a lake boat and teach it to rippling on the lake between the north and south peaks. Life is very fast, unconsciously, I have lived on the West Lake for more than a hundred days, and in these hundred days, I have achieved nothing except meeting a strange painter.

The first time I met him was on a sunny afternoon not long after arriving in Hangzhou. The weather was so beautiful that I couldn't sit still alone in the hotel room.The morning breeze from the southeast swept away the clouds of the day, and wiped the slightly moist sweat from my head. When I was about to walk east across the bridge, a copper railing suddenly appeared behind me. The boatman, the boatman in his fifties, is really elegant, but after hearing his words to please me, I feel that I can't go against his kindness.He said: "Sir: Today is the best July day in West Lake, why don't you go to Three Pools Reflected in the Moon to eat some lotus root and snow root?"

After getting off the boat and sitting down, I also pretended to be elegant, and said to the boatman with a smile: "Boatman, here are two lines of poetry, do you think they are good? They are called 'Independence Bridge is as idle as a crane, someone invites me to eat lotus pods.'" "Your husband is really eloquent. It's a pity that there is no government exam and Taoist exam now. Otherwise, if you pass the exam, we can still come to collect your reward of one or two hundred dollars." "Haha, you are a feudal relic." "Why not? See, although I am such a boatman, I was also a county school boy in the Qing Dynasty!"

Talking and laughing like this, the boat arrived at the Three Pools Reflecting the Moon very quickly. It was at the Jiuqu Bridge of the Three Pools Reflecting the Moon. I met this painter in the afternoon of this day. After the boat arrived at the North Wharf of Santanyinyue, I taught the boatman to fasten the boat and go up with me to eat lotus pods.After walking a few steps away from the pier and turning a few turns, far away at the corner of a bridge pavilion, there are a lot of boaters and tourists crowding around to watch something.My curiosity was also aroused, and by the way, I walked up the long bridge from the bridge head and walked to the place where everyone was watching.When I took a closer look, there was a handsome painter quietly painting on the canvas surrounded by the crowd.I couldn't tell his age because I stood behind him and couldn't see his face.But judging from his back shape, his body is very thin.Needless to say, there is a long and black messy hair on the head.If he stood up, I think he would be an inch or two taller than the average person, because sitting on a short tripod, his forehead was still surrounded by the swollen shoulders of the onlookers. superior.

I stood quietly, watched him for a while, and compared the scenery on the painting with the real thing for a while.What is painted on the canvas is a section of embankment willow seen from the bridge, a big tree, and a half-cornered building behind the tree.The empty space above is the realm of water and people, and it is still a very faint trace of the micro-shape of the distant mountain city. Although his brush strokes are very soft, they are not weak; the color palette is also very clear, but not superficial and kitsch.I have seen a lot of paintings by our contemporaries, but there are not many who can achieve such a harmonious and harmonious interception of nature.So I made up my mind and wanted to stand there temporarily, and when he turned his head, I could take a look at the appearance of the ground.This wish was unexpectedly realized very quickly, because the boatman who came up with me and stood behind me seemed a little impatient, and called me with a loud voice and said:

"Mr. Poetry, let's go eat lotus pods!" Hearing this cry, the eyes of the onlookers turned to us, and they turned their backs to us who were painting quietly. A painter also turned around in surprise.I felt a little ashamed and apologetic in my heart, so I bowed my head and turned around in a hurry, intending to walk away immediately so that I could avoid everyone's gaze.But when I turned my body halfway, I looked around and saw the painter's side face, which was also turning towards me.He has a high nose and a rectangular face, but his complexion is not very good.I don't know why. From my quick glance, I feel that his side profile is very melancholy and restless, which is completely opposite to his charm expressed there in the painting.

The first time I met him, I was separated in such a hurry. After we separated, I immediately forgot about him. "After two weeks, I was still living in the hotel group, smoking, drinking, reading books occasionally, and ran out to release boats on the lake. But on a Saturday afternoon, I happened to meet An old friend from the time of studying abroad, the place is in Xiling Yinshe. He was originally a picture teacher in a provincial middle school. When I first arrived in Hangzhou, I knew he was living in Hangzhou, but because I wanted to write the novel quietly first, and then I went to look for friends again, so I didn't go to see him.After seeing him that day, he had a break for tea at Xiling Yinshe, and he invited me to go to Xiyuan for dinner two hours later.

When the time came, I took a rickshaw from the hotel to Qiqi.After all, it was after the Hungry Ghost Festival, and when I sat in the car, I felt a coolness creeping up between the sleeves.The lights of Qiying seen from a distance also seem to have a bit of autumn flavor, and they don't feel very lively. There were not many guests having dinner upstairs in the West Garden. As soon as I walked up the escalator on the third floor, I recognized the figure of my friend on the table facing the lake in the west.I went closer and took a look. Opposite my friend, there was another tall, thin boy in a suit sitting.

After my friend invited me to be seated, he introduced us, so I knew that this young man, surnamed Chen, was from Taiwan. Like my friend, he also came from the Western Painting Department of Ueno Art School.When I heard this resume, I immediately thought of the painter I saw at Santanyingyue ten years ago.He also looked at my face silently with piercing eyes.I felt a little uncomfortable being looked at by him, so I had to smile and said to him slowly: "Chen Jun, we met at Three Pools Reflected in the Moon, didn't we?" Only then did he change his silent and sluggish face, and said to me with a smile:

"Yes, yes, I am also thinking about it, as if I have met you somewhere." Although he is smiling, his two black and bright pupils are always radiating a gloomy cold light, and surrounding his smile, it seems that there is an inexplicable desolation The air that hangs over there.If you sum up his facial expressions and say one sentence, he seems to be suspicious of me, afraid of me, and afraid to approach me; so his every move is a little restless and uncomfortable. .So the initial impression he gave me was really very bad.Immediately, my heart was directly infected by him, and a cavity of unreasonable melancholy arose secretly.

But after two catties of old wine, a grass carp, and a few dishes of stir-fried vegetables, everyone's spirits improved.That friend of mine also opened up a conversation box, and his words flowed out like muddy water.Although the painter Chen Jun just kept silent and smiled shyly, and sometimes made a few protests and explanations to my friend, his attitude was more lively and natural than before, and he looked cute. "Hey, Old Chen, when will you wake up from your dream?" This was the beginning of a long series of jokes that my friend made fun of him. "Have you found the woman in your dream? From Taiwan to Tokyo, from Tokyo to China. When you arrive here, on the edge of this beautiful West Lake, do you still want to continue your old dream from your student days?" According to my friend, the painter Chen Jun was already a dreamer when he was a student.His ancestral home is Fujian, and his grandfather moved to Taiwan. His family background is very good.However, Japanese imperialism oppressed him so much that he didn't even have the opportunity to study abroad.Although there is a huge amount of real estate, the power of financial management is all in the hands of the Japanese conquerors. Even if your family has an annual income of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, but you want to spend 10,000 to 20,000 yuan to go to a foreign country outside the Japanese border It is impossible to use it locally.He managed to get to Tokyo, entered the Japanese National Art School, graduated, was selected in the second subject exhibition, and won the praise of ordinary art lovers in Japanese society. , or the same as the general Taiwanese people.So he had to flee alone to China, the motherland before it was conquered.Although he fled to China, the land of freedom, his spirit, his spiritual heart, which was oppressed since he was a child, has become an inward paranoia that dare not develop freely; However, he can't avoid that kind of suspicious and hesitant look, so at the age of twenty-eight, he still dare not get married, so his habit of chasing dreams has become his second nature. "Hey, Lao Chen, the woman you saw a while ago is still the product of your dreams, do you know? Where is there such a strangely dressed woman on the West Lake? Even if according to you, she is a A monk from a nunnery, but a young nun, how can there be any reason to go out alone at night? And there is no nunnery in the area around Lihu, that's what I know. If she is a nun near Zhaodantai Well, at that time, why would she walk up to such a remote Geling Mountain alone? This is completely your dream, you must be dreaming there, it is a ridiculous dream. " This is also the plot that was narrated back and forth by my friend, but judging from Chen Jun's hesitant attitude towards this narration, it may be that it is indeed an affair he actually experienced. , is not an empty dream. The plot is like this: on the night of July 13th, the moon is exceptionally clear.After Chen Junyu finished his dinner, he looked at the center of the lake and the smoke trees at the foot of the mountain alone on a tall building, and he drank more than a catty of wine. The darker the night, the brighter the moon. He called Bodhisattva and got no response, so he walked down the Baopu Lu by himself—he originally lived upstairs in Baopu Lu—and wanted to go down the mountain to buy some fruit to quench his thirst.But as soon as he walked down the stone steps outside the gate of Baopulu, in the moonlit part of the pavilion on the west, he suddenly saw the back of a woman in white clothes, standing there looking at the moon outside the pavilion.When he first saw it, he thought it was a phantom that his own drunken eyes mistook in the silver-gray moonlight, so he stood up and wiped his eyes.However, when I looked at it for the second time, it turned out to be a true fact, because the man in white walked from the shade of the pavilion to the light of the moon.On the shoulders of her sloping white dress, he also saw a row of thick black hair falling down.He thought that she had heard his own footsteps, and that she was about to walk down the steps and flee to the mountain, so he held his breath and stood there watching her movements.Her face is facing south and down the mountain. Although he is five or six feet away from her and is behind her to the northeast, in terms of the terrain, he occupies a commanding position, which is completely acceptable. Watch where she moves. She lingered in the moonlight in front of the pavilion for a while, then stood upright again and did not move. Only then did he feel the danger of standing there, because if she turned her head, under the bright moonlight, his body Everything is about to be seen by her.So he quickly crouched down, held his breath, lifted his feet, very lightly, and walked down two or three stone steps as if climbing.From that place, turn to the west and climb over a rockery, he can go out to the north of the pavilion, avoiding the shadow of the rockery and the pavilion.He is no longer familiar with the nearby geography because he has lived for a long time, so he feels very confident in this aspect.Fortunately, when he climbed lightly to the rockery north of the pavilion, her body was still standing upright in the moonlight without moving.Now the distance between him and her is only two or three feet away. He can see her clearly just by stretching his neck. She was wearing a white gown with long sleeves and wide body like a pajamas, with a white wide thing that was tied at the waist.The material of the gown and the girdle is not chiffon, but velvet, because it looks very soft. In the bright moonlight, there are a few places where the light is bent, and it seems to be placed there lightly. Light. Her figure is not tall, but she is always about the size of a medium man. As for the fatness of her body, although she can't see it very clearly, it can be seen from her sloping shoulders and the fat waistline under her girdle. From the rear view, it is not very thin. She stood quietly in the moonlight, and he hid behind the rockery to observe her posture and body. Suddenly, a tree branch fell over his head, and she immediately turned around. Turning his head, he looked at the pile of black shadows where he was hiding.So her face was also seen by him.The whole is a protruding and oval face with a straight and even bridge of the nose, which is a typical model rarely seen among modern Oriental women.What amazed him more than anything else was the pure white flesh color and tender skin on her face.He fell out of anesthesia, and almost forgot his position at this moment, and in front of him was a shy and timid woman. He stretched his neck and opened his eyes wide, almost as if he wanted to take her whole body into his own two eye sockets. She stared into the shadow for a while, seemed to have noticed it, smiled sweetly, turned her head, and walked down the mountain step by step from the stone steps in front of the courtyard full of moonlight. He suddenly fell into a stupor as if he had been struck by thunder, and saw her very soft body go down from the edge of the pavilion, getting smaller.By the time he regained his composure and rushed out from the hiding place in a hurry, hopping like an ape and rushing down the stone steps, she was completely gone. "This night, I didn't sleep until dawn. I went around and looked around the nunnery and villas near the foot of Geling Mountain. But the surroundings were quiet, except for the frosty moonlight and the dark shadows around , I couldn’t even see the faint light of the candle fire. I didn’t know how many times I went up and down the long stone steps to Baopulu. Until the nearby dawn clock moved, the moon slanted It was only after I approached Tianzhu that I dragged my body, which was so tired that I was about to die, back to Baopulu as if I had suffered a serious illness." After my friend finished the above episode intermittently, Chen Jun slowly added these few sentences to tell the truth about his state of excitement at that time.At the same time, the expression on his face became frank and nervous, as if this time's adventure was still a few quarters of an hour ago. Let's talk about it this night, and forget the twilight of time.We didn't pay our bills until the customers upstairs in the West Garden had dispersed and the waiter had extinguished a few lights in the distance.My friend told us not to go at the gate of the West Garden, and Chen Jun and I drove around the Lihu Lake together. At this time, the half-circular moon had already risen to a height of ten feet in the eastern sky. Since this time, Chen Jun and I have become friends.Because he and I live close together, although we don't see each other every day, sometimes we feel bored, and I actually went up the mountain to find him several times. Although the two said that they already knew each other, every time I went to see him and met him suddenly, that uneasy and suspicious look always surfaced on his face, just like when I met him for the first time in Xiyuan. It's almost time.Not only that, but after August, his originally unhealthy complexion became more and more ugly, and a layer of dark and dead color was added to the blue gray - one head of hair was also very long, and his two were gloomy. Sen's big eyes, because he seemed to have lost weight recently, looked more and more fierce and a little scary. Every time I go to see him, I always advise him to work less and think less, and ask him to come to my hotel whenever he is free.But he finally smiled silently and nodded to me, as if he didn't dare to go down the mountain easily. Time passed in a hurry, and I was living idle in the hotel, and finally I couldn't write the novel I wanted to write.On the night of August 13th, the moonlight was extremely bright, there was no cloud in the sky, and even the stars near and far could not be seen clearly. I had dinner, turned off the lights, and sat in the room alone. In the corridor outside, I was smoking a cigarette and looking at the moonlight on the lake and the trees on the lonely mountain.After sitting quietly like this for a long time, I suddenly heard a very sad sound from a nearby place, the same as the howling of animals that is often heard near the zoo in the middle of the night.It was already a cold night, when I suddenly heard this long whistle, my hair stood on end unconsciously.I called the waiter to inquire, and I learned that a nearby temple was occupied by the army prison today, and a few prisoners who went crazy during the prison were newly moved in. The long howl was probably the cry of a madman. undoubtedly.After this sudden shock, my interest in watching the moon was gone, so I went to bed early, planning to get a good night’s sleep, and when I got up early in the morning, I could start writing my novel. It was about four or five o'clock in the morning when the sky was about to dawn. I was suddenly awakened from my deepest sleep by a knock on the door.Sitting up from the bed in a daze and panic, I saw a man with a ghostly blue face standing quietly behind the yawning waiter under the electric light in front of the bed. I hurriedly put on my clothes, wiped my sleepy eyes, and got out of bed. When I looked carefully again, I realized that the man with disheveled hair, purple and black lips, disheveled clothes, and covered in sweat was the painter Chen Jun. . "Ah, Chen, Chen, Chen Jun, you, what's wrong with you, you made it like this?" I was so overwhelmed by his appearance that I could hardly speak.He also seemed to be full of mixed feelings, unable to explain what he said, just shaking his head without making a reply.After the waiter who brought him in exited my room, I saw his bloodshot eyes closed, and two tears welled up from the corners of his eyes. Because I stood there in a daze and watched him all the time, I even forgot to tell him to sit down. After seeing his tears, I regained my senses, took a step forward, and pulled his ice cream. The cold and iron-like hand said softly to him: "Chen Jun, please sit down, if you have anything to say, talk about it later." After sitting him down, I turned around, took the Chanahuac's square bottle from the mantelpiece, and poured him a glass.He drank the cup in one breath, let out a long breath slowly, blinked his eyes a few times, and then said to me slowly and painfully: "I—tonight—meet her again!" "Oh! At this hour?" I was also taken aback by what he said, and when I handed him the second glass of whiskey, I naturally asked him this question.He shook his head, took the wine glass away, held the wine, looked at me with wide eyes and said to me: "No, it was also at the same time as last time, at the same place. ——Because after dinner, I had already ambushed there to wait for her, so I finally caught her at her residence." There was a pause, and after the second whiskey he continued slowly: "This time I was more thoughtful than the previous time. As soon as I saw her walk up the stone steps and stand in front of the pavilion, I straightened my body and made a gesture that I could run up at any moment." Preparing to go forward. Sure enough, she also noticed me very quickly, turned around in a short while, and ran down the stone steps, and I followed closely. To be sure, to see if I was following her, she turned her head and took a look. As soon as she saw me, a layer of terror appeared on her pink face at first, and then she smiled sweetly, still The same kind of smile as last time. I was anxious, I was afraid that she would use the magic of invisibility again in this place like the previous time, so I rushed forward two steps faster. Her footsteps With added speed, she ran eastward first, then southward, then eastward, then northward, and still westward. She ran for quite a while, and finally arrived at the gate of a low yellow mud wall. As soon as she reached the gate, The door opened, and after entering, the door was immediately closed tightly like a spring. I pushed a few times outside the door, and the door panel didn't seem to be too thick, and it didn't even loosen. Loosen. I was so anxious, I had no choice, so I paced back and forth outside the wall. After half a step, I finally found a place where I could put my feet. I went up to the mud wall. I climbed on the top of the wall and saw that there was a big yard inside the wall, and there were many trees planted there. A gust of wind blew up and made me smell the scent of sweet-scented osmanthus all over my body. At this point, my nerves have cleared up a little bit. When I think of what I did tonight, I feel a little too much. But after thinking about it, I have already taken half of the risk. If I don’t do anything, I just go in Then, I climbed a step higher, turned a somersault, and entered the vast and boundless garden with sweet-scented osmanthus trees planted there. In this large garden where moonlight and tree shadows alternate , walked for quite a while without a clue, and finally found a stone path under the shadow of the tree. I didn't know the direction, walked along the road for a while, but walked back to the door under the yellow mud wall that she walked just now. It was near the door that came in. Turned around, turned around again, walked along this stone path, zigzagging forward for a long time, and finally I came to a door that opened in the white wall. Outside. This door is bigger than the previous one. On the top of the door, there are two big characters of "cloud niche" written in ink on the white wall. These two words, under the moonlight Looking at it, it is really beautiful, but I raised my head and stood under the door for a long time before I remembered where I was now. Oh, it turned out that she was exactly as I expected, it was here. An aunt in the nunnery, I was thinking in my heart. But what should I do now? In the middle of the night, a single wild man entered the hermitage of the nunnery together. What happened? Knock on the door and go in? Then I feel a little sorry for my conscience and the education I received. Should I just go back? I hope that all the work I have worked hard for half the night for a month will be for nothing. I am in this dilemma, hesitating about life and death.At the critical moment, suddenly, a very sad sound, which seemed to come out of the ground, was an anguished cry of a wounded beast or a human being. It pierced my eardrum like a bullet and shook my heart. Soul, all the hairs on my body stand on end naturally.After the long whistle of Shan Ming Gu Ying, there was no sound at all.The moonlight also seemed to have a layer of bleak whiteness due to a long howl. The autumn insects that were chirping there seemed to be frightened by the howl and silently fell silent.I shuddered several times in succession, raised my feet They retreated along the original stone path.Climbed out of the mud wall again, found the way, beat around the bush, and walked for a long time.When I stopped, I looked up, but somehow, I had already reached the door of the hotel where you stayed here. " After finishing speaking, he seemed to be extremely tired, leaned his body forward, and leaned down on the table.I thought about what happened to him that night, looked at the messy look on his body and head, and suddenly felt pity for him, so I said to him softly as if to comfort him: "Chen Jun, take off your clothes and lie down on the bed for a while. When the sun rises, I will go with you to explore near the Nani nunnery." He really seemed to have exhausted all his mental strength so far, so he followed my persuasion, walked to the bedside, took off his clothes and fell asleep. He fell asleep and didn't wake up until noon. After I had lunch with him, I asked him if he wanted to go to Nani Temple with me to explore again.He smiled, shook his head, and returned to his usual look.After sitting for a long time, he said his goodbyes and walked back to the mountain. After that, I had very few chances to meet him for nearly a month, because the weather suddenly turned cold in September, and everyone seemed to be willing to go out for a long distance, so he didn't come, and I didn't go up the mountain. To see him. In mid-September, the weather became even colder. I had no choice but to return to Shanghai because I didn't bring much clothes.Needless to say, the novel that was originally intended to be written in Hangzhou still has not written a single word. After staying in Shanghai for a few days, I accompanied someone to Putuo to burn incense and came back. September is already coming to an end.When I was planning where to go this winter, my friend who was a drawing teacher at Hangzhou Provincial Middle School suddenly received an express letter, to the effect that Chen Jun, a painter, had died of illness in Hangzhou. The close friend of his life, I want everyone to gather some money to get him buried in West Lake.The letter asked me if I could give a copy, and asked if I could go to Hangzhou on the day of my funeral, because he was a victim of oppression by Japanese imperialism, and the funeral procession was made a little grander, so he went to West Lake I went to the Japanese consulate in front of the Japanese consulate, which can also be counted as our demonstration movement. Anyway, I had nothing to do in Shanghai, so on October 12th, I took the Shanghai-Hangzhou train to Hangzhou again.The next day, October 13th, was the date of Chen Jun's funeral.At ten o'clock in the morning, I and many artists who lived in Hangzhou sent Chen Jun's coffin to the burial place near Songmuchang, and then we said goodbye to everyone alone. ridge.I had lunch in Baopulu once, and heard many strange illnesses of my old friend Dang before his death, and I also felt a sense of impermanence, like a rabbit dying and a fox mourning.At two o'clock in the afternoon, when I was walking down the mountain from Baopulu in the sun, I suddenly found a small burial pavilion on the left side of the foot of the mountain, which I had never noticed until now. ancient tomb.Stepping in, I saw an epitaph, and it was written by an old friend of my relative.This epitaph, I am now copying it below: Ms. Ming Yang's epitaph for Yunyou Tomorrow Qijian, Ms. Yang Hui and Lin Yunyou, are famous in Xiling for her three masterpieces of poetry, calligraphy and painting.After the death of his father, he should serve his mother with filial piety. He has a dignified personality, and the widow's mother is responsible for all his communication. He does not despise others.Mr. Wang Ranming from the same county built an altar in the west of Zhejiang, cut the wood for the altar, and Chen Meigong inscribed it as "Bushiyuan". A romantic affair.At that time, celebrities such as Dong Sibai, Gao Zhenfu, Hu Zhongxiu, Huang Ruheng, Xu Zhenyue and other sages, when they went to Hangzhou, they must be the leader of Yunyou.Yun Youzhi, check your skirts and sleeves, don't talk and laugh lightly with others, and don't be embarrassed by each other when you enter, it's sad to meet you.Whenever after drinking and tea, the interest is undisturbed, and I suddenly stretch out the silk, and paint the distant landscape with a few strokes, which is elegant and close to the cloud forest. The wall, or the drum and qin, have a high-pitched melody, and they often stop without the end. Looking at its purpose, it seems to be full of worries and worries, and it seems to have a boundless life experience.After his death, Wang Ranming's generation was buried next to Zhiguo Temple in Geling Xia, and covered the pavilion, which was named "Yun Niche".The Ming Dynasty died, and I spent a long time in the wild smoke and vines.In the Daoguang Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Wenshu Yun Bo repaired his tomb and wrote about it in Xiling's boudoir.As far as the legend of Li Weng is concerned, false accusations are not credible.In the middle of Guangxu period, Lord Lu Tao of Qiantang admired his talent slightly, and erected a stele around the stone.Another ten years, in the seventh year of the Republic of China, in the fourth month of summer, Lu Zi and Wu Xing Gu Zi jointly traveled to the lake to re-exhibit their tomb.Mrs. Zhou, Gu Zi's mother, generously rebuilt the pavilion in the cloud niche, and because of her friend Kuimen Zhang Chaoyong's north wall, it was inscribed with immortality.Ming date: The birth of the orchid deer does not choose the place, the qi and the species are excited, and the body and spirit are in harmony.The clouds are full of friends, and the fragrant dust is mixed with each other. The brilliance is flashed in the pan, and the jade is broken and the sesame is burned.For more than four hundred years, the pavilion has been built as before, with hundreds of plum blossoms lingering around.Close to Geling, far to Gushan, Huqiao Chunshe, Jingluan, written by Zhang Chaotang in the east of Shu. October 1, 1930 (Originally published on October 1, 1930, No. 17, Volume 4, "Beixin Semi-Monthly", according to Volume 2 of "Duff's Short Stories Collection")