Chapter 47 3. Betel nut covenant

Along the 70-fold road, I came to Building 5 of Zengjiawan, the home of Wen Jichun, a captain and reserve member of the Military Law Supervision Department of the 27th Group Army of Yang Sen. It was the last day of my stay in Hunan, and the ticket was already packed in the green satchel on my shoulder. Ask about the betel nut shop downstairs, which one is Wen Jichun's house, the countless betel nut shops are the most distinctive feature of Changsha.I don't know betel nuts well, and I haven't approached them once. This one is called "San Mao Betel Nut Store".The master was taken aback, and asked: "What do you do, what exactly do you do?"

After I explained my purpose of coming and presented relevant certificates, he said that he was the third child of Wen Jichun's family, named Wen Huiyuan.My father died on the sixth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in 1991. He suffered from uremia and was 81 years old. "No one has ever beaten the devils for him and came to him," Huiyuan said, "Chew some betel nuts before leaving. Have you never eaten them? Then you must eat them even more." Only then did I take a closer look at the black-brown fruit, half the size of a thumb, with two pointed ends.In the past, I only tasted it in one song: "Betel nuts grow on tall trees, whoever climbs up first will taste it first..."

Huiyuan picked out two betel nuts, which were not too big or small, and skillfully cut them into small pieces with a machete. He picked up the two pieces, dripped a few drops of something, and smeared something on it: "Maybe I'm not used to it, take it slowly." Chewing is mainly to taste the taste." Betel nut?betel nut.Betel nut! Compared with its own taste, the coating of sugar on its surface seems unreal.From the first bite, the strong taste will explode in your mouth, rushing around and spreading rapidly. Is it bitter, astringent, sour, sweet, spicy, or numb?It is nothing and it is nothing.

"My father was first in the Wugang branch of the Central Military Academy, the third period of the officer class. After graduation, he was assigned to Song Xilian's unit. Fighting devils began at that time. As for the battles he fought, he rarely said, and I can't remember. exact." "The betel nuts are best from Hainan Island. It doesn't matter if they are cooked or not, as long as they are big or small, they can be eaten. Wash the fresh betel nuts, boil them thoroughly, dry them, smoke them, and soak them in wine and saccharin for three days. Then wrap it with burnt white sugar, which is what it looks like in the basin now. After cutting it open, drip it with cinnamon oil, and smear it with the boiled sugar juice mixed with brown sugar and lime.

"I was confused. Poached, sun-dried, smoked, soaked in wine, coated in sugar... After so many procedures, is it just to create a taste effect that changes from strong to light? "On the eve of liberation, my father left the Kuomintang army. Knowing that good jobs were hard to find, he worked in the East District Manager Department of Changsha Material Recycling Company to recycle waste. In 1957, he put on the hat of four types of molecules. In 1988, the policy was implemented. The police station The household registration police surnamed Hu was in charge of my family’s case. Comrade Hu informed my father: Your case is different from anyone else’s. I went to the top to check, but found nothing, not even files, and you were not included in the qualitative list. People determine who you are, so now there is no problem of taking off your hat. You have never worn a hat. Your business, that is, what the street director said at the time was not an organizational opinion... nothing is less than others Shou, don't mention how difficult it is, 31 years."

When you finally walked out of the ice and snow, someone suddenly said to you: Don’t get me wrong, spring doesn’t belong to you. Life is not Pushkin's poetry, and not all pain can be turned into sweet memories, but people still need something to chew and aftertaste, although the aftertaste is not always sweet, or even never sweet.Everyone or every group of people has their own way of reminiscing about life, Hunanese - chewing betel nuts. Huiyuan said that drivers should chew betel nuts to refresh themselves when they are sleepy after driving at night, and chewing betel nuts when they are awake will make them feel drunk.

God, besides mobilizing all the sweetness and bitterness contained in life, what else can be like betel nuts, which can regulate one's feelings about the objective world in both directions! All the old people who have participated in the cause of the liberation of the Chinese nation, all the old people who have experienced disasters and tortured together with our nation, only you are qualified to tell the last taste of betel nuts! The oval and pointed betel nut, this almost missed opportunity, marked the end of my inexplicable journey of looking for veterans. This is indeed the fruit of "whoever climbs first will taste it first".Perhaps our generation will never be able to fully taste the betel nut taste of the previous generation.But we also have the taste of betel nut that we "climb the tree and taste it later". We are willing to enrich this short and short life with our own struggle and sacrifice, and with all the flavors in life.