There are seven households in our courtyard.The Lu family is a "seated land household".My family and the other five families all moved here from all directions due to relocation.Before New Year's Day in 1966, they all got together in that courtyard.During the Spring Festival, we pay New Year greetings to each other, and the foundation of a harmonious and friendly relationship has been laid since then.I was seventeen that year.third grade. Uncle Lu is the "principal", and with the pious enthusiasm of "sitting households", he shouldered the responsibility of managing our compound. He inserted the gate at ten o'clock in the evening and opened the gate at six o'clock in the morning; he divided the households fairly. Cover the area of ​​the "door bucket" and the coal shed; drive out the wild children who come to play in the yard; question the suspicious strangers who appear in the yard; seriously investigate the cause of the sudden power failure; lose all opportunities establish prestige.

He was thirty-seven years old, one year older than I am now.But in my mind, it is the elders.He once participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and made a small contribution.After being demobilized, he worked as a railway marshal and enjoyed himself for a while.Born with a donkey temper, he often regarded himself as a hero who defended his family and the country, and repeatedly angered the leaders over trivial matters. As a result, he was fired from public office just because of a consensual "male and female issue".Not convinced, study the law.appeal.He believed that according to the legal provisions, he was "caught for rape" when he and the woman were about to "enter Hong Kong" but could not "enter Hong Kong" in the future, which could not be regarded as an actual "adultery".The higher authorities refuted: dismissal from public office is not based on law, but on morality.He is lucky to be able to "enter Hong Kong" in the future.If he has "entered Hong Kong", he will not only be dismissed from public office, but will also be convicted.The woman was his immediate boss—the young wife of an old bureau chief.He ran around and defended everywhere, hoping to gain sympathy.After two years of turmoil, it is difficult to reverse the case.In desperation, he had no choice but to inherit the mantle of his father Lu Laomazi and start a business of pushing carts and beating drums to collect junk.In his own words, he was rushed by a hail of bullets, but he fell down in a woman's arms and couldn't get up! "It's just a fucking bosom! It's just a woman!" He often talked to people about his extremely sad "love affair" back then.Because "it's in my arms" and "it's just a woman", I feel extremely wronged.The grievance reveals a very meaningless meaning. "Damn it, she teased me first! She is the chief's wife, wouldn't I dare to hook her up without teasing me first? After the fucking incident happened, she cried and bit me back. Now she's the section chief!" He gritted his teeth with hatred for the woman who ruined his reputation and ruined his future.But every time after cursing, she would always say something like this: "Damn, she is so flirtatious, winking, even a man would lose half of her body!"

Fortunately, Aunt Lu was extremely lenient towards him, and she always adopted a commendable attitude of "doing nothing to cure him" without any resentment.He also gained a wise experience from this painful lesson - "Although domestic flowers are not as fragrant as wild flowers, they are yours after all. You can pick them when you want! Picking wild flowers is too unsafe, too unsafe." "Exchanging tattered money" is considered a "dirty" job, but the income is much more than that of being a marshal.Inside and outside the house, more than three hundred and sixty days a year, there are piles of junk, and Aunt Lu never finds it an eyesore.

"Whatever it is for, just spend money on bento! My family likes to open the fund on that day. Doesn't the mayor only open it once a month?" Aunt Lu also has a kind of " Govern by doing nothing" optimistic attitude. One day when Uncle Lu made a lot of money, she would use all the skills of an excellent kitchen lady to cook seven plates and eight bowls, and the whole family would have a delicious meal.On days when Uncle Lu was lazy and refused to go out to earn money, he would cook a big pot of sorghum rice porridge or corn noodle porridge and drink it from morning to night.The women in the courtyard all said that the adults and children of the Lu family are not bad for their stomachs.Only my mother disapproved of this lifestyle of starving to death on the first day of the first day, but she did not comment.

Since Uncle Lu's emotional experience was frustrated, he no longer has the slightest romance with "Wild Flower".Become a dedicated husband.The remaining value other than collecting tatters is all reflected in the word "wine chess".Keeping to the wine bottle, even if there are only sticks of pickles, two catties of "Old Baigan" can't make him drunk, and he claims to be "wine Tai Chi" kung fu.Once drunk, he would lean on the kang head with semiconductors in his hands and listen to Beijing operas.This is the performance of 70% drunk.Eighty to ninety percent of the time when he was drunk, he would fall and hit things.When Shicheng was drunk, he was terrified, holding a kitchen knife or an axe, standing on the roof, jumping and cursing the street, threatening to fight Zhang San to the death, and Li Si to die together.Zhang San or Li Si will probably come to apologize to him for something.There are a lot of wives and children living on this street. Who would want to fight with him and be at odds with him? "Brother, don't be angry! I was talking drunk, my buddies! You are my big brother! How can I fight you hard!..." He accepted it as soon as he saw it.Accept it when you can see it well, which proves that he is not without water when he is very drunk.Before the people in our courtyard moved here, he had already acquired two nicknames.One in front, one behind.People call him "Second Master Lu" in person, which means awe; when he is mentioned behind his back, they call him "Second Donkey Lu".When we moved in, he tried to only reveal the first nickname to us and keep the second.I can't help myself, so I have to listen to what I want to hear with my left ear and what I don't want to hear with my right ear.

My mother was very afraid of him at first, and told us: "Don't mess with him. If you mess with him, he will break into the house with a kitchen knife and axe to fight desperately. Your father is far away. Can mom resist him? Or can you resist him?" killed him?" Mother's fear affected us.When we saw him, we quickly lowered our heads and retreated. Once he was very drunk again, and in a snowy day, he took off his arms and moved from the roof of his house to the roof of my house, jumping and yelling at someone, holding a shovel, and dancing up and down.Bounced and collapsed a large part of the roof of my house.My mother and we were so scared that we hid in the house and dared not go out.Afterwards, his mother went to his house and comforted him with some wise words about how to behave in the world.

He was moved and said to his mother: "Old sister-in-law, it's hard! I'm a junk collector, and I'm a person who has made a mistake and was fired from public office. I don't use wine to pretend to be a donkey. You’re being bullied!” The next day, I even bought two tins of canned food and sent them to my house to “shock” my mother. Mother said to us again: "Actually, you don't have to be afraid of him. He's not bad-hearted, but he's just a donkey. You have to stroke him. If you stroke him, he's still reasonable." Probably because his mother was well versed in the scientific methods of getting along with him, he respected his mother very much from then on, and he would not speak unless he was called an "old sister-in-law".Let us gradually feel close to him.

He played chess really well.Before being expelled from public office, he won the championship of the provincial staff chess competition.It was the most glorious honor he ever received.In the evening, when the boxwood chessboard and rosewood chess pieces (the champion's prize) are placed under the street poles, they look like Napoleon.Strategize and win a thousand miles.Raising chess like a mountain, falling without regret.He is the well-deserved master of the street altar and the king of street chess.Invincible is not his bragging, it is a recognized fact. It was Uncle Jiang who first established friendship with Uncle Lu.Uncle Jiang is a worker in a small manufacturing factory with only about 300 people. Uncle Lu's new chess friend, he is quite proud of being lucky enough to join Uncle Lu's chess friends.The two became friends from chess friends, and the relationship between the two became very close.

The left neighbor of Uncle Jiang's house is Uncle Zhang's house.Uncle Zhang is a "responsible comrade" who does not have a formal cadre level in a few small shops in a district. He is considered a person with some power in our compound.When the rest of the stores couldn't buy matches, light bulbs, soap, soy sauce, noodle soda, etc., they had to go through his "back door".He is happy to open such small "back doors" for his neighbors. The right neighbor of Uncle Jiang's house is Uncle Sun's house.Uncle Sun was the director of the furniture workshop of the unique Longjiang Woodenware Factory in Harbin at that time - Zhengke level.Compared with Uncle Zhang, in the eyes of the neighbors, his identity is naturally different.He is a very official man.The heaven is full, and the earth is round.He doesn't like to talk.Whether in the yard or on the street, if you don't take the initiative to say hello to him, he will never take the initiative to speak to you.The men and women in the neighborhood thought he was putting on airs as a section chief.In fact, it is his nature.

Next door to Uncle Sun's house is Uncle Dou's house.Uncle Dou is a turner in a street machine repair shop.That factory is smaller than Uncle Jiang's factory, with more than 80 people.Uncle Dou and Uncle Ma, who is diagonally opposite, are good friends, and both have a little bit of musical talent.Uncle Dou has a trumpet, and Uncle Ma has a clarinet.There is often an ensemble at night, and they are all characters adored by the children in the yard. Besides my father, Uncle Ma is the oldest man in the yard.Fifty that year.It is said that having studied at "National High School" and being an accountant in a coal company, he became a representative of the image of an intellectual in our college.He can't help calling himself an intellectual.He has four daughters and one son.My son is the same age as me and is in the third grade of junior high school.

Our family is the most difficult family in the yard, and we have received a lot of help from our neighbors.The grateful mother is very humble to any family.Although my father works far away in Sichuan, his home is full of his certificates, reflecting our family tradition of advocating honor.