Chapter 46 Section 2 There are many stories in the small town

Life in a small city is very leisurely. On that street, I can often see some people strolling.The warm subtropical sunshine hit their shoulders, and their faces were intoxicated.When they are tired from walking, they will sit on the benches on both sides of the street and watch the pedestrians coming and going.They are the scenery of this street, they embellish this street. Not far from the street, there is a very quiet alley with a limited number of shops: a tea house, a tobacco shop, and a small restaurant. The teahouse was run by the uncle of the station master. His surname is Huo, and I call him Uncle Huo.

Uncle Huo is an unusually open-minded person, he is always smiling, like an old cat lying in the sun.He's never angry, and he doesn't know anything in the world that would make him angry.Uncle Huo spends all day in the teahouse.There is an old banyan tree at the entrance of the teahouse.The long air roots of the old banyan tree hang down, covering the entrance of the teahouse like a bead curtain.The summer in the south is extremely long, and the weather in the south is very hot, but the teahouses under the shade of trees are extremely cool.Therefore, at dusk, under the banyan tree in front of the teahouse, there will always be a group of people gathered.

This group of people are basically locals, and they are all about the same age as Uncle Huo.They are also frequent customers of teahouses. The relationship between this group of locals is intricate, and there are people they know well in every street and alley, and they have their sources of news.This teahouse is the distribution center of the city's daily folk news.It is difficult to see such news in newspapers and on TV. It is very vivid and vivid. It is truly "news about people's livelihood" from the people. The genre of news is divided into news and features.Many of my news articles also come from Uncle Huo.

There are only three reporters in this press station, two locals, and I am an outsider.The two reporters who arrived early monopolized all the resources of the municipal government.Whatever policies the municipal party committee and government have, they can always get documents and drafts from the correspondents.They guarded against me like fire and thieves, fearing that I would snatch their news resources and news leads.In fact, my news orientation is quite different from theirs.I like to write folk news.It is commonly referred to as social news, and I am not at all interested in their dry news articles on current affairs.

It was almost the end of the year, and they kept calling on the phone every day. It was the department that was going to hold an annual commendation meeting and invited them to participate.At the commendation meeting, they held red envelopes in one hand, manuscripts in the other, and New Year’s goods on their arms, and returned happily full of rewards.In the next day's newspaper, the name of the department and a lot of numbers will appear.This is the most common phenomenon at various annual summary meetings at the end of each year.I don't have such an opportunity, I can only do my own social news honestly, soak in Uncle Huo's teahouse every day, or wander around the streets of the small town, looking left and right, looking for clues.

Uncle Huo is a rare kind person I have met.He never thought of embarrassing others and hurting others.He has almost no hobbies, and his only hobby may be listening to others.No matter what others say, he is listening without saying a word, his face is calm, like the water in a dry well, without any waves. Uncle Huo occasionally sang songs, the sound was like a broken gong.He sang the theme song of the TV series "Huo Yuanjia": "Sleeping for a hundred years, the people of the country are gradually waking up..." He squinted his eyes, his face was full of intoxication, as if he was the Huo Yuanjia in the long gown, maybe The heroine Zhao Qiannan in that old TV series... I heard Uncle Huo always sing this song over and over again, and he may only sing this song.

Uncle Huo didn't have "Zhao Qiannan", he was celibate all his life. I heard from others that when Uncle Huo was young, he was arrested and followed the army from the south to the northeast. He was made dumplings by Lin Biao's troops in Daheishan, so he revolted on the spot and joined the People's Liberation Army.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, some troops from the Northeast went to North Korea, and Uncle Huo also went there. He was frozen to death in the severe cold of more than 30 degrees below zero, and was later captured by the US military and locked up in Geoje Island.Later, in the screening of prisoners, Uncle Huo was unwilling to go to Taiwan and must return to the embrace of the motherland.

After returning, Uncle Huo’s fate changed. In all previous movements, Uncle Huo was censored and criticized. It was not until the reform and opening up that Uncle Huo was liberated and enjoyed the peace and tranquility that a normal person should have. When he was young, Uncle Huo was a "traitor", and no one dared to marry him; now that he is old, poor and lonely, no one is willing to marry him. Uncle Huo's life is very monotonous and lonely. Only these regular customers who come to the teahouse every night add a little color to Uncle Huo's monotonous life. In this city, I met many, many friends, some of whom are still in touch with me today.These people are all the legendary bottom people.And I seem to only have a sense of belonging among the bottom-level people, and I will feel like a fish in water.Because they are both honest and honest, and they have no worries, and they can become good friends with just a cigarette.

In this city, I also met another old knife grinder who traveled all over the world.This occupation is now almost extinct.Twenty years ago, the streets and alleys in the south often heard the cry of "sharpen the scissors - grab the kitchen knife", but now, this voice is hard to hear. The old man sharpening his knife rode an old bicycle.This bicycle is like a man in shabby clothes but in good spirits.Although the bike looks weather-beaten, it is durable and full of substance.Every year after the Lantern Festival, the old man who grinds the knife sets off from his hometown in Guangxi on this bicycle. A whetstone and sharpening tools are strapped to the back seat of the bike.Every time he arrived in a city, he would walk to the door of a restaurant and yell: "Boss, sharpen your knife..." The boss would take out a kitchen knife.After finishing this one, go to the next one.

The old man who grinds knives usually stays in one city for a week. After the kitchen knives that should be sharpened are finished, the old man rides his bicycle to the next city... In this way, from January to June every year, the old man rides a bicycle and carries Sharpening tools, starting from Guangxi, passing through Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Liaoning, he walked along the coastline.And every July, the old man rode his bicycle to the south again, still walking all the way, and when the Laba Festival was approaching, the old man also returned home. The business of the elderly is regular customers, so don't worry about no business.At the beginning of spring this year, the old man walked into this restaurant; at this time next year, the old man will come as scheduled.The old man likes this kind of life like a migratory bird very much. He has spent the past 20 years like this.

The life of the knife-grinding old man is very attractive to me.I have imagined countless times that I can walk around the Great Wall of the Yangtze River north and south like him, but unfortunately I have to work and support my family.I can only put away my wandering dreams and wait until I am of his age to put them into action. I can't go to distant places, I can travel around. Hundreds of miles away from this city, there is an island.There are some fishermen on the island, and fishing and mending nets are all their work.I once spent three days and three nights walking around the island along the coastline.Local fishermen said that I was the first person to go all over the island. Here, I enjoy the beautiful unknown scenery. In my backpack was a one-foot-long Tibetan knife, some dry food, and a book, so I hurried on the road.This Tibetan knife has followed me to many places, and it is still in my study.Among the dozens of knives in my collection, this Tibetan knife is the only one I have a soft spot for.I bought it from a Tibetan man for 100 yuan. The scenery in some places on that island is very terrifying, the kind of creepy horror.No one has ever been to those places.They lie quietly in the corner of the sea and the sky, unknown to everyone, and have passed through tens of thousands of years, hundreds of thousands of years, let the sea wash away, be struck by thunder and lightning, be exposed to the sun, and whipped by storms... Once, I just climbed up a huge reef, and suddenly saw, under the violent tropical sun, countless crabs, crabs that could not be seen at a glance, crawled in panic among the stones like a forest of swords Crawling, countless legs and feet are moving, countless bodies are moving, and countless pairs of eyes are wandering.The horrible sight almost made me dizzy.A few minutes later, these crabs rolled into the sea like layers of waves, leaving only dazzling white rocks and dazzling green grass on the coast.I thought, these crabs must have sentries, as soon as they saw someone approaching, they fled into the sea.Maybe they have never seen people before, as long as a different kind walks in, they will run away. I also saw a cactus as tall as a person on the coast.The outstretched, fangs and claws are also terrifying.Countless tall cactus branches and vines are clustered, some have small yellow flowers on them, some have huge prickly pears, and some have re-rooted and grown from withered branches.Spring goes and spring returns, flowers bloom and fall, and they have spent tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years like this.Time freezes here, stands still.The wildness since ancient times has made these landscapes unchanged, but it is frightening. I have been walking along the coastline. Sometimes, there are broken rocks in front of me. Tens of meters below the rocks are rough river water, and there are reefs exposed on the water surface.I stopped before the cliff, not knowing where to go.If you go back, you may have to walk a few miles or tens of miles; if you jump over, it is very dangerous. Later, I made up my mind to fight for the final victory without fear of sacrifice and against all odds.I first threw my backpack across the cliff, then took off my clothes and threw it over, then stepped back ten meters, ran quickly, and jumped over naked.My body took on a parabola and landed on the opposite bank like a stone.My fingers firmly gripped the rocks on the opposite bank, and I climbed up with all my might.I was lying on the rock panting, my whole body was so tired that I almost collapsed. Below my body was a cliff like a knife and an axe. Many years later, I will always dream of jumping over the cliff that day. In the dream, I didn’t jump over, and fell under the cliff like a kite with a broken string, and fell on the reef. Countless crabs scrambled to climb On my naked body... I woke up with a yell, drenched in sweat. Here, I also saw a very beautiful scenery, which is more than ten times more beautiful than any seaside scenery photo I have seen.The sea water is very blue, so blue that it seems that a piece of blue sky has been melted into the sea water.The sea water slapped the beach gently, like a mother slapping a sleeping baby, so soft that the sound could not be heard.The sandy beach stretches as far as the eye can see, and the sand grains are so fine that they will leak through your fingers if you hold them in your hands.The beach is very pure, without any debris, and the scenery is also undisturbed.The beach has also been sleeping here for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, which is why it is so pure and beautiful.There is a forest in the distance, dotted on the beach, making it all like a dream. In this life, I have never seen such a beautiful scenery.Since then, all the landscapes I have seen have human footprints, and where there are people, there will be dirty pollution.Human beings have stabbed and cut dirty scars on the pure and flawless face of nature.All things in the world should live in peace, and the Creator is extremely fair. Human atrocities will one day be liquidated. At that time, I didn't have a camera and couldn't take pictures of these beautiful scenery.These beautiful scenery are only kept in my heart.When I'm old, when I sit in the sun and look back, it's still beautiful. At Uncle Huo's place, I also met Uncle Ouyang. Uncle Ouyang is a few years younger than Uncle Huo. He has traveled all over the world and visited many places in his life.Unlike the taciturn Uncle Huo, Uncle Ouyang is very eloquent and well-informed. I heard that he also worked in the Folklore Museum.Like Uncle Huo, Uncle Ouyang is also single. Uncle Ouyang's experience is a valuable asset. Uncle Ouyang said that now, if southerners want to find the history of the north, they can only go to the ancient villages in the north; if northerners want to find the history of the south, they can only go to small towns in the south.This two decades of over-development has severed the 5,000-year-old national cultural bond in China. Speaking of the difference between the north and the south, Uncle Ouyang said: Southerners ride boats, northerners ride horses.In the southern water towns, where the river network is densely covered and the rainfall is abundant, boats have become the means of transportation; in the north, where grasslands are endless and the climate is dry, people use horses instead of vehicles.Cao Cao's 830,000 troops traveled across the north, but they couldn't adapt to the south.Therefore, there are advantages and disadvantages to riding a boat and riding a horse. People in the south eat rice, and people in the north eat noodles.The south is hot and rainy, with paddy fields and river networks all over it, which is suitable for rice growth; the north is dry and cold, and the temperature is low, which is suitable for wheat growth.People who are used to rice are not used to flour; people who are used to flour are not used to rice.Therefore, when southerners come to the north, and northerners come to the south, they must first solve their eating habits. Southerners are generally petite, while northerners are generally tall.The climate in the south is hot, the metabolism is accelerated, and fat cannot be stored; the climate in the north is cold, the life cycle is long, and the accumulation of nutrients is large.People on the equator generally live less than 40 years old, and they are dark and short; while Eskimos and Russians have many centenarians, and they are very tall. The southern languages ​​are complex, while the northern languages ​​are single.The terrain in the south is complex and there are few wars, so each place has its own dialect.Fuzhou dialect, Hokkien dialect, and Xiamen dialect are spoken along the coast of Fujian; Chaoshan dialect and Guangzhou dialect are spoken along the coast of Guangdong.The terrain in the north is flat, wars continue, and ethnic groups are integrated, so the language is assimilated and very single.Looking at the ancient wars, almost all of them were fought in the north, while there were relatively few wars in the south. The roofs in the south are pointed, and the roofs in the north are flat.The pointed ones are for better drainage and heat dissipation, while the flat ones are for drying grains.Huizhou architecture and Lingnan architecture all have a minaret; while northern cave dwellings have only small doors and windows for ventilation, which is convenient for keeping warm. Southerners like tea, and northerners like wine.The climate in the south is hot, drink tea to cool down and relieve fire; the climate in the north is cold, drink to increase heat and keep warm.Guangdong and Fujian, which are located in the subtropical zone, do not have a liquor factory; while there are few tea factories in the northeast and northwest. The southerners are shrewd, while the northerners are bold.Most of the southerners do business as literati, while most of the northerners are military generals.Southerners don't fight and are prone to scolding; while northerners fight each other when they disagree with each other.Southerners will make friends with you only after they recognize you; while northerners will yell and want to stab you when they meet.Southerners pay AA for meals, while northerners rush to pay for meals. There are many liars in the south, and there are many robbers in the north.Text message scams, bag swapping...all occur in the south; homicides and robberies mostly occur in the north.Even if it happened in the south, it was basically done by the northerners. Uncle Ouyang said, all in all, the differences between the north and the south are due to geographical reasons.Southerners and northerners have their own characteristics, and you cannot say who is good and who is not. Uncle Ouyang was eloquent and witty, but during the intervals of speaking, he was always coughing hard and his face was flushed. I asked him, why is this happening?Are you feeling unwell? Uncle Ouyang said, "It's okay, it's been like this for many years." I suddenly wondered if Uncle Ouyang had a lung problem, so I tried to take him to the hospital to have a look.That day, after a CT scan was taken at the local hospital, the doctor said that he could not understand the "film" and asked Uncle Ouyang to go to a famous hospital in the provincial capital to have a look. The next day, I took the CT scan of Uncle Ouyang to the provincial capital railway station by train. The CT scan is too big to be folded, so I can only clip it under my armpit.