Chapter 23 bayberry shochu

I have been ill for half a year, and I have never left the ward. I just woke up, and I naturally want to go somewhere.According to the new term, it is to change the air; or according to the old term, Aristotle (Aristoteles, 384-322 BC) ancient Greek philosophy is also to eradicate the ominousness of evil; It is also human nature, not to mention this climate, this fiery climate where the king of the earth is doing things, really forces people to take refuge in a place where the sea and sky are wide.So the first thing I thought of was Japan's hot spring areas, Beidaihe, Weihaiwei, Qingdao, Guling and other summer resorts.However, the economic situation in the past six months, with poor clothes and insufficient porridge (饣 + right-handedness), does not allow me to have this kind of behavior of imitating ordinary people.As a result of thinking about it, I finally decided that it would be better to go to Hangzhou; after all, the travel expenses to Hangzhou would be cheaper, and besides, I also have an old friend living there, so I would like to go and see him here, in the dim light You can also go to talk to him about the old parting that you haven't seen for seven or eight years.

On the afternoon of the second day after making such a decision, I was already eating the seasoned bayberry shochu with this old friend I hadn’t seen for many years in a small restaurant on the lake. Outside the house is the same volley of sunlight as the place directly below the equator, and the lake is covered with lukewarm muddy water and a layer of slightly fishy vapor that evaporates from the muddy water.There are very few coachmen on the road, and there are not many pedestrians passing by.Among the many dusty tables in the restaurant, we were the only two customers who had to ask the price before ordering food.

He - an old friend of mine - and I have not seen each other for seven or eight years.It's a long story, but anyway, he was a preparatory classmate of mine when I was studying at the University of Tokyo.After graduating, the two traveled here and there, not communicating with each other, neither knowing their respective addresses, and they have been separated for seven or eight years.Until recently, it seems that there was a delinquent boy who used my name to raise funds from various places, saying: "So-and-so fell ill in Shanghai, and is now detained in XX Hospital of a charitable organization in Shanghai. People from all over the world Gentlemen of benevolence, all benevolent men, whether they are acquainted with XX or not, I hope to give some favors to save XX's life and death." An old friend of mine also heard this news from nowhere. A month ago, I actually cut two yuan from his hard-earned income and remitted it to Shanghai XX Hospital in a serious manner. In this XX Hospital, I was originally known by a doctor. So two weeks ago, his donation of two yuan and a very simple letter were finally transferred to me by that doctor.After receiving his letter and discovering that several unfinished manuscripts signed by me were published.After inquiring around far and near, I fully understood the tricks that the unscrupulous boy did as I mentioned earlier.And this song is actually a very funny little tragedy, but now it has finally become the gene of our two old friends saying goodbye.

He was wearing a linen gown with patches on the shoulders. After entering the restaurant, the gown was hung up by two buttons and hung on the wall.So both he and I were left with an undershirt, a brutal shape of shorts.Of course, his undershirt was darker than mine, and it already had two small holes in the back, while mine was a new domestic product bought at the market for five cents just before leaving for Shanghai. Not only has his appearance not changed in the slightest from seven or eight years ago, he was still the same even when he first entered the university preparatory course in Tokyo.The tuft of beard under the mouth is still the same as it was more than ten years ago. It seems that it has just been shaved by three or two. Black painted small wooden fish.Strange to say, I have been with him for four or five years, and during the seven or eight years since I returned to China, his round beard has never grown shorter or longer.It seemed that when his mother gave birth to him, the beard was just there, and it would not change until he died.His two eyes seemed to be swollen after crying for a while, and they were still the same as when he was a student, just looking at the tip of his nose dimly, with a faint and inexplicable smile.The forehead is still so wide, the cheekbones are still very high, the cheeks under the cheekbones are still deeply sunken, and there is always a small wine glass in the socket.His age is still the same as when he was a student. It seems that he can be seen at any age from twenty-five to fifty-two.

When I got off the train station, I went to a summer English and math cram school not far from the station—this school is really unlucky, it’s almost like the two attics of a second-landlord house in Shanghai—to see him At that time, he was teaching there.In a small, dark room, there were eight or nine stupid children of fourteen or fifteen years old, staring blankly at the blackboard.The old man turned his back, stretched out his often convulsed hands, and wrote mathematical formulas and exercises on the blackboard. There was no sound in the room, only the sound of his chalk ticking.That's why his round back and that long linen gown with a large piece soaked in sweat caught my attention.When I asked the landlord his name downstairs, he must have heard it upstairs, and at the same time, in the middle of such a quiet lecture, he would never ignore the sound of my footsteps going upstairs step by step. Yes, when I went upstairs, all his students stared at me, which can be proved, but he, who has always seemed a little numb to his nerves, did not move at all, and continued to write his formula , so I had to sit quietly in a vacant seat in the back row of students.He filled the blackboard with formula exercises, read it from the beginning to the end to see if there were any mistakes, coughed two or three times on the blackboard, put down the chalk, and took a dozen of the chalk on his body. Clean, and then slowly turned around.At this time, his forehead and mouth were already filled with profuse sweat, and his red and swollen eyes must have been completely covered with sweat. He didn't see me and talked nonchalantly After a while, it was announced that the mathematics class was over, and the students were taught to go to another low room to listen to English.There was shaking upstairs, and the students rushed to the low room next door. I slowly stood up, approached him, and stretched out my hand to pat his sticky shoulder.

"Oh, when did you come?" Finally, he also showed a surprised expression, and raised his two hazy eyes that were always looking at the tip of his nose.He pinched my hand with his left hand, and with his right hand he took out a black and wet handkerchief in his pocket to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Because the teaching is too hard, I didn't hear you coming up. The weather is really amazing. Have you recovered from your illness?" He asked me many incoherent questions one after another, which was a sign of his excited state, and he was still the same as when he was a student.I gave him a brief answer, and then asked him if he had any classes in the future.He said:

"Because the students in Class A have graduated today, so there is only Class B left. I have finished teaching mathematics, so there is no class today. The English for the next hour will be taught by the principal himself." "Then let's go to the lakeside for a walk, do you think it's okay?" "Okay, okay, let's go right away." So we went to the lakeside, and went to this small restaurant that was about fourth or fifth class. We sat down in the restaurant, ordered a few plates of cheap and delicious side dishes, and drank a few sips of bayberry shochu, before we began to talk in detail about the day after goodbye.

"How is your life recently?" At the beginning of the first sentence, he asked about my occupation. "Although there is no occupation, and the poverty is considerable, but the few things of food and clothing are always here to support the past. What about you?" "Me? As you can see, it's not bad. In this summer school, I teach for a month, and I can earn sixteen dollars." "So what happens when summer school is over?" "I also teach in a complete elementary school there. Fortunately, there are only me and the principal, sir. There will be no shortage of sixteen yuan a month. I heard that you are doing books, and the income is probably good?"

"Good can't be good, but sixteen or sixty dollars is what you get every month." "The fact that you fell ill in a nursing home in Shanghai is an impostor, but why did this impostor use the name of people like you and me?" "It's probably because this impostor has been poisoned by a little education. It's probably because he has a little knowledge like you and me, but there is no proper place to use it." "Ah, ah, when it comes to the proper use of knowledge, I'm still thinking about it here. My knowledge of applied chemistry has not been used for a day since I returned to China, but, but, I think I can always succeed this time. .”

Speaking of this, his face changed direction, he no longer looked at me, but turned his eyes to the sunlight outside. "Hey, I think I can always succeed this time." He simply forgot about me, as if talking alone. "Two thousand yuan for preliminary machinery, one thousand five hundred yuan for factory construction, one thousand yuan for quartz and other materials and charcoal, one thousand yuan for human advertisements, but the advertisements must be published. The total is five thousand five hundred yuan. Five thousand yuan A capital of 500 yuan. In the future, it can be fired and produced. Even if it only produces 100 yuan of finished products a day, then one or three gets three, 3,000 yuan a month, 36,000 yuan a year, and a 20% discount. Three, eight, twenty-four thousand, three, six, one thousand, and a total of twenty-five thousand and eight hundred yuan. Repay the capital with six thousand yuan, use six thousand yuan for expansion expenses, and use ten thousand yuan to build another house , Well, housing, of course, everyone in the company can come and live. Well, well, just teach for one year, and after one year, it will be fine...”

I only heard that he was calculating vigorously, but I didn't know what he was calculating, so I asked him softly: "What are you calculating? Is it a performance from the Ming Dynasty?" "No, no, I'm talking about the glass factory. After a year, the principal and interest are paid off, and another ten thousand yuan can be used to build a common house. Oh, what a profit you say! Hey, this one After the house is built, you can still come and live in it, write a book, and do some advertisements for us by the way, okay, cheers, cheers, drink up this glass of shochu." Inexplicably, he raised the wine glass, and I had to join him in draining a glass of shochu that was left over after eating the red bayberry.He drank the half glass of soju, closed his mouth tightly, closed his eyes again, and remained silent for a minute.Then he opened his red and swollen eyes again.Called the waiter loudly and said: "Waiter, two more glasses!" After two glasses of new bayberry shochu came, he closed his eyes tightly, leaned his back against the wooden wall behind, held a handkerchief in one hand, and wiped the sweat from his face again and again, and held the bayberries one by one in the other hand. mouth to send.Chewing and leaning, eyes closed, he was still humming and saying: "Ah, ah, build a house, build a new-style house by the lake. Glass, glass, use the glass from our factory, and you need to buy glass. Ten thousand yuan, ten thousand yuan." After humming like this for a while, and eating red bayberry for a while, he suddenly raised his glass again, opened his eyes and asked me to say: "Hey, old classmate, friend, let's have a toast!" I had no choice, so I had to raise my glass again to have a half-deck with him, but looking at his tall glass of bayberry shochu, it turned out that both the bayberry and the wine had been eaten.After finishing his drink, he closed his eyes again and leaned against the wooden wall behind him, while shouting to the waiter again: "Waiter! Two more glasses!" Sure enough, the waiter brought two more cups full of red bayberry and wine, and set them in front of us.He closed his eyes again as before, leaned against the board wall, and put one red bayberry, one red bayberry, into his mouth.I was also a little bit drunk at this time, so I didn't care about it. I just dozed off with my hands crossed on the table in silence, but beside my ears that were not yet fully asleep, I could only hear the same He hummed like a bee: "Oh, what a pleasure, what a pleasure, ten thousand dollars! A house by the lake! An old schoolmate, a friend, coming from far away, drinking, drinking, drinking!" I finally couldn't sleep well because he was yelling at me like that.But these two cups of bayberry shochu in Dog Days.I am so tired from the half-day train journey, so I really want to find a hotel nearby to sleep.At this time, he opened his eyes again and asked me to have a third glass of soju. I also sobered up by the way, opened my eyes wide, and had a real drink with him.When this cup of shochu, which seemed to be sweet, was finished, I couldn't bear it anymore, so the church attendant came over to settle the score.When he saw the waiter coming over and I was paying the bill, he suddenly stood up like crazy, put one hand on my right hand that was holding the banknotes, and left his left hand in the leather pocket near the waistband of my trousers. touch; when the waiter took my banknotes and brought the change copper coins and put them on the table, his face turned blue, his red and swollen eyes hung, and he grabbed the copper coins on the table, jingling Throwing on my face. With a "thud" sound, I felt a cool and irritating feeling in the temple above my right eye, and then it started to hurt a little.At this time, I was also stimulated by the alcohol and went into a seizure. I stared blankly at him and drank loudly: "Hey, are you crazy, what are you doing?" His face, which was originally deformed, was covered with blues, overflowing with a layer of murderous aura. "Fuck you, I'm going to beat you capitalists, you bastards who don't work, come on, let's compare our arms. If you want to pay, are you selling rich?" He raised his eyebrows, clenched his teeth tightly, clenched two fists, and rushed to my side fiercely.I also felt very angry, and I scuffled with him regardless of the situation. Bai Dan, Ding Dang, the falling tables, chairs, cups and plates were all overturned on the ground, and he and I also tumbled out of the store.I really don't know how far the two of them fought, I only heard a lot of idlers, coachmen and patrolmen rushing from all around. When I woke up from sleep, thirsty for water, and woke up with my bruised body in the wooden fence of the second branch, the short summer night was already midnight, three or four It's o'clock. I opened my eyes, looked around for a week, and asked a night patrolman who had just walked past the fence to understand, and only vaguely remembered the plot during the day.I asked my friend again, and the patrolman said that he had already sobered up and returned to the school in the city station before two o'clock.I begged him to report to the inspector and let me go back immediately.A moment after he left, he took my long gown, straw hat and wallet back to me.As I put on my clothes and went out for a urinate, I asked him to pour me a bowl of water to quench my thirst.By the time I slipped the five-yuan bill into his hand, put on a straw hat, and walked out through the gate of the Second Branch Office, it was already daylight.Being blown by the morning breeze, my mind cleared up a bit, but I remembered all the things that happened yesterday afternoon, and at the same time, a faint wave of melancholy arose in my heart like an electric shock. "Ah, maybe this is life!" As I walked forward slowly, I unconsciously read such a monologue from my mouth. Made in August 1930 (Originally published on July 1, 1930, No. 13, Volume 4, "Beixin Semi-monthly Magazine" (this issue is a new date.——Editor's Note), according to "Duff's Short Stories Collection" Volume 2)