Chapter 20 escape

(When this article was first published, it was "Meng Lan Pot Meeting"; when it was included in the sixth volume of "The Complete Works of Duff" "The Collection of Wei Fern", it was renamed "Escape".——Editor's note) Yuantong nunnery is halfway up Dongshan.The bamboo forests, old trees, rocks and moss, which are scattered in front, back, left, and right, are all like the blue ocher in ancient Chinese paintings. Although the decoration is very messy, it is also very beautiful. At the foot of the mountain is a winding stone path, and to the west is the Chenghe River. Although it has dried up, the shallow water with reed flowers in autumn is more interesting than anything else.There is a stone bridge over the city river, passing through this bridge, going west, you can reach the center of the bustling F city.

The fallen leaves in the middle of the mountain conveyed the news of autumn, and the coolness of the few days woke up this small city of F from the heat and confusion, and it was time for the citizens to hold the Obon Festival. This year, the Yulan Basin Festival in Yuantong Nunnery was particularly grand, because it was consecrated and merged with a newly molded statue of Weituo Buddha.On the yellow list posted there on the wall in front of the nunnery, it is written that there are three days and three nights of repentance from the Wei Tuo Sutra and a hall of peace for hungry ghosts. On a clear morning in the first ten days of July in the new autumn, there were quite a few faithful men and women, carrying incense baskets and yellow bags, going to Yuantong Nunnery to participate in the victory ceremony along several sangma wild roads outside F city. Among them, the elderly women who are nearly 60 years old are the most.

Among this group of pious believers, there was an old woman with a slim figure and white hair, wearing a green bamboo shirt and blue linen skirt, and holding a wooden staff with a dragon head in her hand.In front of her, there is a handsome child of twelve or thirteen years old, wearing a long bamboo gown, carrying a basket of incense, acting as her guide.She seemed to be a descendant of a local gentry, and many passers-by who met her greeted her and asked her questions along the way.She stood in the middle of socializing with others, and every time the child in front wanted to run away alone, she always raised her soft and lovely guttural voice and yelled:

"Cheng'er! Why are you walking so fast?" So the person called Cheng'er, always blushing, immediately stood up and stood quietly by the roadside, waiting for her to come slowly. The sun is already high, and the broken shadows of mulberry branches are shaking on the wild road.In the blue sky, when a piece of white cloud flies over from time to time, the wild scene will immediately change to light, and many green creatures in the middle of the highlands and paddy fields will move from light to dark.The cicadas on the branches will also be silent for a while, and then make a sound together after a breath.

This time Cheng'er was called again, and he stood quietly among the weeds beside the road waiting for her.But when she slowly walked in front of him, he showed an impatient look on his face, and said to her with his big black eyes bare: "Grandma! You can go faster, and don't talk to others, my two hand-carved incense baskets are already very sore." As he spoke, he replaced the incense basket in his left hand with his right hand.His grandma—grandmother—heard his complaints, and seemed to feel sorry for him, so she made a kind smile on her face to comfort him and said: "Baby, it's hard for you today."

When approaching the three-fork intersection next to the stone bridge, Cheng'er accidentally raised her head. On the trail along the mountain to the south, she saw a man with black hair on his forehead, fair skin, and neat clothes from a distance. The little girl is also walking on the road to Yuantong nunnery.Walking in front of the little girl, he knew at a glance that her family's servant girl was walking behind, of course her mother.Cheng'er's heart started beating, and blood flooded her face immediately.He put his head down, quickened his pace, and ran desperately towards the stone bridge, meaning he wanted to run ahead of them, overtake them, and not be seen by them in such an embarrassing situation.After driving for more than ten steps, his grandmother called him again; this time he was no longer as submissive as before, and he no longer stood quietly by the roadside waiting for her, because he knew in his heart that Grandmother was chatting with the widow of the Tao family again, and the widow's daughter, Xiaolian Yingli, was the real cause of his embarrassment.

He walked hurriedly, while in his bewildered mind, he was searching for the scenes before and after he and Lian Ying met several times.The first time he saw Lianying, he remembered it clearly, was on a spring afternoon two years ago.He had just come out of elementary school, and occasionally ran to the ship pier with a few classmates, intending to go to the Leizu Temple in front of Dongshan after passing there, but the whistle blew twice, and the late ship happened to arrive at the pier So, a few friends went ashore with him to watch the commotion on the shore of the steamship company's wharf.Among the bustling tourists, he suddenly saw this Lian Ying, who was about his age, with two buns combed on her hair, and whose skin was as fine and white as powder.He went crazy watching it, and his classmates urged him to leave, but he didn't hear it.When all the passengers had left and Lianying was going somewhere, one of his classmates took him by the hand and made fun of him, saying:

"Hey! Shucheng! Have you taken a fancy to that little girl? Do you want to tell you carefully? She is Xiao Lianying, the daughter of Widow Tao who lives next door to us, and she just came back from her uncle in Shanghai. Do you think Her? If you miss her, I'll be your matchmaker." Hearing the ridicule of this naughty classmate, he returned to normal as if he had woken up from a dream, blushed, and started fighting with that classmate.As a result, Lei Zudian didn't go there either, so he broke up with them and ran back home alone. Since this time, his desire to see Lianying has become more and more intense day by day, but his actual actions are always contrary to this desire.He didn't dare to go near Lianying's house, even the house of that naughty classmate who often went in and out, he didn't dare to go.Sometimes when he couldn't bear it anymore, he would sneak out of the house in the dark night, thinking of many excuses alone in his heart, detoured and detoured the route, squeezed a few cold sweats, mustered up courage, and spent a lot of worry before he finally arrived. Dare to walk past her door once.At this time, all he saw with his peeping eyes was a gray wall and a few closed doors and windows.However, he naturally heard the news about her and the movements of her family in great detail without knowing where it came from.He knew that besides her mother, there was only an old maid and a servant girl in her family.He knew that she would often go to live with her uncle in Shanghai.He knew which girls she used to play with when she was living in F city.He also knew that Pearl, whom he met every day and whom he never knew very well, was her best friend.But in fact, he also learned many things from this pearl while pretending to be unintentional.Needless to say, he did not have the courage to ask Pearl, but usually when Pearl talked about Lianying on his own initiative, he always pretended to be uninterested and irrelevant; In his heart, he only wished that Pearl could talk more about the family affairs of the Tao family.

The second time I met her was in September of this year, when the City God Temple was performing at night.Like today, he was accompanying his grandmother to the theater.Their seats happened to be in front of them, and this night made him dizzy, as if he was sitting on pins and needles, he didn't dare to turn his head, and he didn't dare to say a word.After midnight in a coma, when they went back, he just wanted to cry again, as if he had lost some treasure.Of course, he was at a loss and couldn't remember what kind of drama he was watching, and when he came back that night. The third time we met was in the first month of last year, on the morning of the Lantern Festival, he accidentally passed her door with many children and a group of dragon lantern bands.Although he caught a glimpse of her amidst the hustle and bustle, when he was walking past her, he turned his eyes elsewhere, pretending that he didn't see her at all.

"Today is the fourth time!" As he hurriedly walked, he was thinking about these past episodes in his bewildered mind.Thinking of the blatant meeting that he couldn't escape today, he felt an indescribable depression in his heart. "Run away!" he thought, "Fortunately, there are a lot of people in Yuantong Nunnery today, so I'll escape through the back door and go to the top of Dongshan Mountain!" It's coming soon. After overtaking a few pilgrims walking in the same direction, he ran up the mountain road, and when he was approaching the steps of the gate of the nunnery, the veteran receptionist standing in front of the gate had already seen him.

"Chengguan! Where's grandma? Why are you running so fast?" Hearing the familiar old man's voice, he naturally had a smile on his face just like the rescued victims.After taking a few steps forward, he handed the incense basket to the old Taoist, and panting, he hurriedly replied: "Grandma will arrive later, I will hand over the incense basket to you, and I will go up the mountain to play." Before finishing these few words, he squeezed into the nunnery gate, passed through the main hall, and walked out of the nunnery through a small door that opened towards the mountain at the back, intending to climb up the mountain to escape. City F is a small county on the banks of the Qiantang River, and there are three to four thousand households on the coin.Because the river flows straight down, turns here and travels eastward, so in the past when sailing boats came and went, F city level was a good place to stop the boat and take a rest.But now after the steamship started sailing, the business in City F was much more sluggish.The only thing that is as beautiful and lovely as before is the old mountains and rivers surrounding F City.In fact, the natural scenery near the city of F is really elegant and noble, and it is by no means comparable to the rich and colorful West Lake not far from here.A clear and crystal clear river flows straight down, changing its itinerary when it arrives at F City, it seems like thousands of troops coming from the south.Along the two banks of the river, there are continuous green hills and sandy islands full of willows and peach blossoms.When the great river reaches the bank, it twists and turns to the east, so the heart of the river is open, wider than the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.The misty trees and cloud mountains on the other side look ethereal and empty, just a piece of green.And the city of F facing the river in front of it is surrounded by many mountains that meander like long snakes on the north, west and east sides.To the east of Dongshan Dangshi, it rushes straight into the river. Looking from the other side, it looks like the head of a mosquito dragon lying down drinking the river.The rocks all over the mountain, and the temples and monks' houses in several ancient villages are exactly like the eyebrows, horns and noses on the dragon's head, each with its own unique appearance and wonderful color.The east mountain meanders and extends to the north, getting higher and higher, connecting with the Shugu mountain that pierces into the cloud peak, standing tall in the north of F city, but it acts as a barrier to block the fierce wind from the north.Shugu Mountain circles to the west, like a long bow, the west pole of the bow connects with the peaks on the west bank of the great river when it is turned back. It is a matter of course that the adjacency of temples, temples and nunneries outside the famous city of F like this is a matter of course.Among these ancient temples in the 480s of the Southern Dynasties, the towers are more perfectly built, including the Lei Zushi Temple on the top of the Dongshan Mountain facing Jiangzhu, and the Hengji Immortal Altar behind the temple, and the four sides of the Dongshan Mountain, near the northern suburbs. This Yuantong nunnery. Shucheng escaped from the gate of the nunnery, and slowly climbed up the mountain from a sloping path.When he reached the half-peak of the mountain, he heard the sound of bells and pans in the nunnery and pavilions under his feet.Gradually climbing higher and higher, when I climbed to a rock on the ridge and stood there, the sun had already sprinkled down on the branches of several old trees like gold powder.At this time, the jump in his chest had calmed down.Wiping the beads of sweat on his forehead with the sleeve of his long shirt, he turned his head and looked west for a long time.The sound of the bell in the Yuantong nunnery below is getting louder and louder. Looking down, on the tiles of the nunnery, there are a few wisps of cigarette smoke flying in the air. Although it is very thin, it is also very thick.Looking straight to the west, there is an open space with grass and trees, and to the west is the thousands of smokers in F City.The sun was shining flat on these grassy roof tiles and hair-like avenues, and there were many pedestrians on the wild roads, dragging their shadows like small animals, walking towards Yuantong Nunnery.Geng raised his head and looked at the bottomless blue sky from the branch, and for some reason, a kind of inexplicable and faint sadness suddenly rushed into his heart.He wanted to cry, but felt that the grief was not as intense; he wanted to laugh, but felt that what happened today was not a happy thing.Standing alone on the rock under the big tree for a long time, in this kind of feeling that seems to be sad but not sad, and happy but not happy for a long time, suddenly heard the voice he just walked on the lower half of the mountain. There was another voice on the path.He just woke up and ran into the wall of an ancient temple on the top of the mountain to hide. This is a rugged mountain road, and the path is difficult to walk, so except for the woodcutter and shepherd, few people come to the top of the mountain.And because of the summer rain for several months, the firewood beside the road has grown very tall.He heard people's voices on the path at the bottom of the mountain. He didn't know what kind of person it was, and he was also climbing the mountain to look far away like him; but he hid behind the wall of the ancient temple for a long time; he didn't hear any movement. .When he was laughing at his guilty conscience and doubting his hearing, suddenly under the window outside the wall where he was hiding, there was a very clear female voice speaking: "Ah Xiang! It's so high here, you see, even the roof of the Kuixing Pavilion is under your feet." Hearing this voice, the blood in his whole body froze immediately, and his face immediately turned blue.He held his breath and lowered his body a little bit so that no one outside the window could see or hear him, but in his ears he could only hear his own heart beating very loudly.Gritting his teeth, he suppressed the death-like depression for a while, and when he heard Ah Xiang's footsteps heading south, he felt relieved.He endured silently for a few minutes, and felt that they had gone far away, so he straightened his body and looked out from the lowest pane of the corrugated window. He made a big mistake in his budget. Not far from the window, at the root of a pine tree, Lianying's side, which looks like a Greek stone carving, still lives there quietly.He could see the whole of her body, looking through his window, all he could see was a black cloud of short hair and one big black eye.Next to the eyes, there is another snow-white high and narrow nose bridge.She seems to be looking at the people in the west city, her eyes are blurred and floating in the distance, and the corner of her lips is also tightly wrapped, which is clearly the face of an angel with sorrow. He stared at this side of her, and he didn't know how many times, his body forgot to keep lowering down, and he couldn't breathe out. Depression, surprise, fear, annoyance, all emotions seemed to leave. His body and all consciousness seemed to be lost.He only heard Axiang's voice calling her from a distance, as if in a dream, and he only felt that in the world through his window, that side suddenly disappeared.I don't know how long she went, but his two big eyes were still there blankly, looking at the empty space on the top of the mountain.It wasn't until the sound of a single drum beating in the nunnery at the foot of the mountain faintly reached his ears that he recovered his mind.He left behind his grandmother, his grandmother's incense basket, and the rich vegetarian fruit that was offered to guests in the Yuantong Nunnery at noon. As soon as he left the gate of the ancient temple, he walked like a person suffering from a fever. He kept running away on a small path in the back mountain, not daring to turn his head back, and not daring to take a breath. Written in September 1928 (Originally published in the first issue of the monthly "Popular Literature and Art" on September 20, 1928, according to the second volume of "Duff's Collected Stories")