Old things in the south

Chapter 13 Aunt Lan (2)
"Don't look at him at the age of 68, he is tough! If I go on, I can't survive him. Their family treats me alone, and I still have a few good years to live! I don't want to bury my young life in their house. However, the world is boundless, what should I do when I come out? I have no relatives, and there is a mother in Suzhou who sold me when I was three years old. I can’t remember which street she lives in. Ah! I remember that there was an oil lamp in that room, illuminating my elder brother who was lying on the bed. He was sick, and my mother sat by the bed and cried. It must be because of this illness that my elder brother sold me! Thinking of it like a dream, I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, or it’s true…”

Aunt Lan said with tears in her eyes, maybe she didn't want to cry, and she forced a smile on her mouth.

Mom can't speak, she is clumsy, and she doesn't try to persuade Aunt Lan.I thought of how I broke down with my mother in the crowd when I watched the Fa-burning boat in Beihai in July and a half last year, and cried so anxiously. How can a person live without a mother?I lost my mother when I was three years old, and I wanted to cry too. I said:

"Aunt Lan, just stay at our house. My father likes to keep people to stay. There are quite a few vacant rooms!"

"Good boy, kind-hearted, finish your studies tomorrow and become the headmistress, don't marry, there are no good men in the world! If your parents are willing, I will live with your family for the rest of my life, let me worship your mother as my sister, ask Will she be willing?" Aunt Lan said with a smile.

"Is Mom willing?" I really asked.

"I wish!" Mom's voice seemed to have been soaked in vinegar, why is it so sour!
I'm very happy if Aunt Lan can stay in our house for a long time.Why did she also say that I want to be the headmistress?Once, I was standing by the character testing booth on the opposite side of the street to watch the excitement. The man who tested the characters suddenly pulled out a folding fan from his back collar, pointed at me and said to the fortune-tellers: "See? This little girl is going to catch up tomorrow." Being able to be the headmistress, her nose is tall and straight, she has big ideas! She is masculine." Aunt Lan's words, Mr. Word Tester's words, made people feel very comfortable, and made me feel that I am very great.

Dad was also kind to Aunt Lan. That day I followed my parents to Ruifuxiang to buy clothes. After Mom happily selected some clothes for me and my younger siblings, Dad suddenly said to me:

"Yingzi, you can pick another one for Aunt Lan, do you know what color she likes?"

"I know, I know." I was very excited, "She likes an egg-blue Indian silk with a black border and a white bud..." I said happily, and when I turned around and saw sitting Mom by the glass cabinet, Mom was frowning and staring at me.The clerk had already brought several pieces of silk, both dark and light, and Dad picked out the lightest one, handed it to Mom humbly, and said:

"Look at the material, is it okay? Is it real silk?"

Ma tensed her face, grabbed the end of the cloth, and clenched her hands tightly, as if trying to squeeze someone to death.Let go of your hand, and the ball of silk slowly unraveled, full of wrinkles. Mom said:

"Buy it if you like it, I don't understand!"

I really don't understand why Mom suddenly got angry with Dad, until one day, in the smoky opium smoke, I also smelled something wrong with the smell.

Uncle Hu, who made Jiuliu government bonds, often came to my house to play cards. He had a set of smoking sets in our house, and my father sometimes lay there to play with Uncle Hu.

Aunt Lan is very good at burning cigarettes, because Uncle Shi also smokes opium.It's time to have dinner. Dad and Aunt Lan are lying on the bed, facing each other. They are resting on the embroidered pillow with lotus leaves. On it is the zipper peony flower embroidered by Mom. I like the smoking set in the middle. It looks like what Dad gave me from Japan. A box of toys brought back.There was a small smoke lamp in the white copper smoke tray, emitting blue and yellow flames. Aunt Lan used a silver pick to pick out a pinch of smoke paste from a coin-shaped silver box, and burned it on the lamp with a buzzing sound. , and then soaked the smoke in her red palm and rolled it, just like that, burning it back and forth, inserting it into the bong, and pulling out the silver stick, there was a small hole in the middle.The pipe was handed to Dad, and Dad sucked his mouth and smoked it against the light.I sat on the small bench and looked at Aunt Lan's hands in a daze, that way of burning cigarettes was really skillful.Suddenly, in the mist, Aunt Lan's hand was grabbed by Dad, who said:
"You are cinnabar hand, you are blessed!"

Aunt Lan slapped Dad's hand with her other hand, then withdrew her hand and stared at Dad with a smile:

"Don't mess around! Didn't you see the baby?"

Maybe Dad really forgot that I was in the house, he raised his head sideways, and smiled at me unnaturally, that face of Dad!I had a cold war, and for some reason, I immediately thought of my mother.I stood up, lifted the curtain, walked out of the bedroom, and ran to the kitchen in the outer yard.I don't know why I am looking for my mother at this time.When I ran to the kitchen, I yelled: "Mom!" Leaning against the door frame with my hands behind my back.

Mom stood in front of the big stove, her head was covered with sweat, her face was flushed, her belly was too big, and it was sticking out, as if she was going to give it to someone else!The oil in the pot was hot and smoking. She poured the vegetables into the pot, and then she turned around and asked me impatiently:
"What are you doing?" I couldn't answer, and looked straight at Mom's face.She was anxious, and urged me again: "Speak up!"

I was forced to find something to say, seeing her knocking on the bottom of the pot with a shovel and putting the fried vegetables on the plate, the technique is also skillful, so I can only say:
"I'm hungry, Mom."

Ma had no idea how much I felt sorry for her, she just scolded me:

"What are you in a hurry for? Are you going to die after eating?" She raised the spatula to chase me away. "Go, go, it's very hot, don't make trouble here!"

In my tearful eyes, the image of my mother was blurred, and I finally cried out with a "wow".Mother Song pulled me out of the kitchen, what did she say? "I don't know how to feel sorry for your mother. It's such a hot day with such a big belly!"

I jumped on tiptoe and cried.

Aunt Lan also ran out from the courtyard, she said:

"Didn't it be fine just now? Why did you make trouble in the kitchen again?"

Mom said:

"Go get her daddy to beat her up!"

It was getting dark, and I was surrounded by the women at home. The more they told me to eat, the sadder I became; the more they said I was ignorant, the more I cried.

In the chaos, I suddenly saw a white shadow passing by me. It was Uncle Dexian who hadn't seen me for a long time. He didn't even look at me, and walked straight to the inner courtyard.Looking at the back of his fluffy white silk gown, I gritted my teeth, hating everyone in front of me, including Uncle Dexian.

The next morning, I was the last person in my family to wake up. When I woke up, I closed my eyes and thought, should I continue the hunger strike earlier?Yesterday's incident of opium smoking and cinnabar hands caused me uneasiness, but she reminded me of several things: I remember my mother told others that my father ate flower wine in Japan, family by family, eating a whole stick Street, eat from dark to dawn.Mom stayed at home until dawn, waiting for a drunk husband to come back.I also remember that when we lived in the city, every time we came back from listening to a night show in Chengnan Amusement Park, when the car passed through Yanzhi Hutong and Hanjiatan, Song Ma would always push me out of my sleep: "Wake up, wake up, everyone Miss! Look, how bright it is!" I opened my eyes and saw that I was passing through a bright and bright alley. In front of each house, there were pictures framed with small electric lights and colorful frames, with words such as "brother", "Daiyu" and "Lvqin" written on them. "Wait, the nanny told me that Aunt Lan didn't come to Uncle Shi's house, she also lived in this kind of place.They are bad things that scrape men's money and destroy their homes!Because of this, when I saw what happened to my father and Aunt Lan, I felt that my mother was wronged, and we were all wronged.I have greatly discounted my original liking for Aunt Lan, and I hate and fear at the same time.

I got up and wanted to go to the front yard. When I passed the wing room, I saw Aunt Lan touching dominoes on the table in front of the wall, playing with her tricks. Hateful.

"Yingzi!" Aunt Lan called me through the window.

I had to go into the house. Aunt Lan pushed away the dominoes on the table, stood up and took my hand, and said softly:

"Look at your child, your eyes were swollen from crying last night, and you didn't eat any food." She stroked my hair, and I was tense, without smiling at all.She added:

"Don't be sad, the day after tomorrow is July [-]th, what kind of lotus lantern do you want, Aunt Lan will buy it for you."

I shook my head, and she continued in a self-contained manner:
"Didn't you say you want something special? I'll help you make a watermelon lantern, okay? You have to eat up the melon, peel off the skin, and leave a thin layer of flesh, and light a lamp inside, with a transparent grid. It's quite interesting." .”

Aunt Lan talked too much, so she couldn't help but bring her hometown accent, soft and soft, how nice it sounds!I changed my mind by what she said and nodded.

She was also very happy to see that I agreed, and suddenly asked me in gossip:

"Who was that four-eyed dog who talked nonsense with your dad yesterday until midnight?"

"Four-eyed dog?" I don't understand.

Aunt Lan smiled mischievously. She wiped her face down with the palm of her hand, bent her fingers into two circles, and compared her eyes:
"Here! This is the man!"

"Ah—that's my Uncle De."

At this time, I don't know what kind of mood suddenly made me side with Uncle Dexian. I deliberately called Uncle Dexian more affectionately, and said:
"He is very knowledgeable, so he wears glasses. He is studying at Peking University. Dad said that he is a top, top, top new young man. He is amazing!" I pointed my thumb and said, very confident Aunt Lan The humble status means that it is more depressing.

"So it's a college student!" Aunt Lan softened, "Then it's the college student that your mother said, who often lives in your house to hide from the wind?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Aunt Lan nodded and said with a smile, "Your father's heart is pretty good, and everyone of low and low rank has stayed."

When I came out of Aunt Lan's room, I couldn't help but walked to the south room where Uncle De lived in the front yard.I have the right to go, because there are my homework, my little cloth man, and my "Children's World" in the desk drawer in the South Room. Uncle Dexian is occupying the desk, so I walked in and opened the desk drawer rudely. , Turning this and that, without purpose.He was so troubled by me that he looked down at him.I said:
"Where's my knife? Where's the scissors? Aunt Lan wants to make me a watermelon lantern!"

"Who is that Aunt Lan from your family? Why haven't I seen it before?" How happy I am that Aunt Lan has attracted his attention.

"Uncle Dexian, do you think that Aunt Lan is pretty?"

"I don't know, I didn't see clearly."

"She can see you clearly, she said, your eyes are very dignified, and you are very knowledgeable in glasses." I thought of "four-eyed dog", and I couldn't bear to look directly at his face, only to hear him say:

"oh oh?"

During lunch, Uncle Dexian talked more, he stopped talking to Dad alone like no one else, and turned his head from time to time to ask Aunt Lan for advice, but Aunt Lan only cared about serving me food, and didn't care about it at all. Watch out for him.

In the afternoon, I slipped into Aunt Lan's room again.I took a chance and said to Aunt Lan:
"Mr. De praises you!"

"Praise me? Compliment me for what?"

"I went to the study in the morning to look for scissors, and he said to me: 'Your Aunt Lan is very good!'"

"Yo!" Aunt Lan pursed her lips and smiled, "What else did he say?"

"He said—he said, he said you looked like one of his female classmates." I said nonsense.

"Then—he is from a college, how can I compare!"

At the dinner table, Aunt Lan was smiling and chatting with Uncle Dexian.Pa was even happier, saying:

"I just like to help friends in need. I'm not afraid of things that others dare not promise!" He patted his chest as he spoke.Dad drank enough wine, his eyes were red, and he smiled and squinted at Aunt Lan.Mom's face was so ugly, I stood up to pour tea, my heart was cold and scared, as if my mother and I were going to be thrown into the wilderness.

I guarded Aunt Lan all day long, not letting her have a chance to be alone with Dad.Uncle Dexian lived in our house this time and rarely went out. He stayed in the house all day in a daze, or wandered around in the yard.

(End of this chapter)