Old things in the south

Chapter 53 First Love (1)
When I wandered to the south that year, I was already penniless in my pocket. Fortunately, my childhood classmate Wu Jun was a local. He asked me if I could bear the loneliness and go to the countryside not far away to become the Hozen King?At that time, as long as I had a place to stay, I didn't care about more.But when Wu Jun told me that the headmaster is an old maid, I hesitated a bit, so I said to Wu Jun:

"Old classmate, you know my temper best. If someone like me goes to deal with old maids, aren't you afraid that it will ruin your introducer's face?"

But Wu Jun reassured me again and again, he said: "This is an extraordinary old maid, she will not only make you feel at home, but also your bad temper should be influenced by her!"

Sure enough, as Wu Jun said, I don’t have to be wary because the principal is an old maid, because her attitude towards me is not only a lenient boss, but also a loving mother and a kind teacher, making me feel like a wanderer. Feel the warmth of home.It's not a complete home though, and the hostess is just a celibate like me.The difference between me and her is that I am still young, and I have no intention of never being married, but she seems to be the incarnation of the merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva, who came to the world to dedicate herself to education.I haven't heard that she has been in love before, and she will never get married in the future, because she is 52 years old.Villagers here often say that the headmaster is a filial daughter, and her father has taught books all her life. Because of her filial piety, she has inherited her father's will and never married. How admirable she is to use the property she deserves to establish this country school!

She takes good care of me and often organizes my messy clothes for my irregular life, or sits under the lamp to mend buttons for me.I often think that she is not only a good principal, but also a good housewife. How would life be different if she married and had children around her knees as a mother—or even a grandmother?I couldn't help but question her, what made her abandon her normal married life and spend her whole life as a village boy's teacher in this lonely mountain village?I wanted to ask her several times, but I finally stopped because I respected her and was afraid of offending the holy her.

Summer vacation is here, and because I am content with life in this quiet mountain village, I even declined Mr. Wu's invitation to travel to the provincial capital with his sisters.I often sit opposite the old principal, make a pot of good tea, each of us has a book in hand, talk or read, and while away the hot time, it is not difficult.The principal is sometimes very funny. She often calls me different names. Of course, she calls me "teacher" seriously in front of the schoolchildren, but behind her back she always casually calls me "little sister", "little naughty", and "little daughter". Call.

One night, I sat in the opposite room and looked at her demeanor sitting alone under the lamp, which inevitably aroused my reverie about her. Seeing that her head had grown white hair, I thought of what it would be like to be single all my life. She is so peaceful and normal, it is not easy to explore her heart!I've just washed my hair and I'm thinking about her as I comb it.She turned her head suddenly, seeing my dumbfounded look, she came over and said with a smile: "Are you homesick again?" She often thought I would be homesick, so she sat down and coaxed me to laugh, and I knew that she wanted to comfort me The loneliness of my sojourn.

She put my long hair loose on my forehead behind my ears, looked at my face and asked me suddenly: "Why are you a girl running around and not planning to get married?"

I didn't know how to answer her, but I immediately felt that I had nothing to hide from such an old principal who cared for me so kindly, so I told her bluntly:

"The first love did not succeed, and I will never try it lightly again in the future!"

She was taken aback for a moment when she heard this, and then said with a smile: "Then you came to this country to heal the wound of love!"

I took advantage of her to tease me, so I also joked to her:
"Then why don't you marry?"

"Me? Isn't it good that I am like this?" She answered me with a slanted head and a smile.

"I've heard many people who are not married always say, 'Isn't it good that I am like this?'" I imitated her tone, and continued: "Actually, it would be better if you were married."

"Why?" She seemed interested in what I said.

"Because you are really a typical example of a good mother." I pressed on, "Maybe you once had a story."

"A story? A story of what? Little Rascal!" She tousled my hair again.

"A—love story, isn't there?" I was literally bluffing her, though I'd never thought of it before, it was just a blurted line.

After hearing what I said, she was not angry, but nodded mysteriously and said, "No one has guessed me like this before!"

She seemed very excited tonight, and as usual we had a pre-bedtime pastime in the middle of the courtyard.She brought a pot of good tea, along with a yellowed photograph.She showed it to me and said it was made 20 years ago with her father and sister.But when I saw a young man in the photo, I suddenly felt something, so I asked her:
"So, who is he?"

She didn't answer my question right away, but sat on the rattan lounge chair, held up a cup of tea and sipped it, watched the heat of the cup of tea, and said slowly: "Don't you suspect that I have a story? For 20 years, I Tell this story for the first time, and I hope you're the only one who will hear it," she said, patting the back of my hand.Under the moonlight full of stars, I listened intently to the following story.

My parents love each other forever. Ever since my mother passed away, my father brought his only two daughters—my younger sister and I—to this countryside near Yan’er Mountain in order to avoid being hurt.

My father took a fancy to this place because he was traveling with his students one year and found it by accident. For some reason, he wholeheartedly wanted to realize his wish to buy a piece of land and build a house here.He designed and built this small red brick bungalow by himself. He intended to spend the rest of his life with his mother, but his mother left before she could see it was completed.But my father still followed his original will and resigned from his half-life professorship, determined to live in the countryside and write books.

Although I was grieving for the loss of my mother, and suddenly left the city and my acquainted relatives and friends to live in a strange country, but when I walked into this new house, I couldn't help being fascinated by the fresh scenery in front of me, blue sky, green bamboo, The combination of red bricks and white walls is so eye-catching and clear.Although later, after my sister got married and my father died, I faced the freshly painted white wall alone, and spent some of the loneliest days in my life, but when I entered the new house, I regained my happy mood, Receive a new life after the death of the mother.

As soon as my mother died, the responsibility of housewife fell quickly to me.For a period of time after her death, her aunt came to live with her and take care of the housework.After we decided to live in the country, my aunt handed me a bunch of keys, and she told me how to manage the house diligently, because it was not easy for my mother to save two houses with my father's meager income throughout his life.She also said that my mother had worked hard for our sisters, because there was no son, these two houses were to be left to us as dowry, the red brick bungalow belonged to me, and the one in the city was for my sister.I didn't pay attention to what my aunt said at the time. Although I had graduated from the Women's Normal School, the family's warm and loving atmosphere made me seldom think about things outside of the family.

I should be happy to run the housework, because my mother has already set a good example for me.I remember when I was a child, I saw a bunch of keys under my mother's armpit, and how envious I was when she walked!Sometimes she left it on the table, and I would take it and play with it, imitating my mother, hanging it under my armpit and running around, so that my mother could not be found everywhere.The bunch of keys has been polished and smooth due to years of friction under the mother's armpit.I took it from my mother's hand, and it hung naturally under my armpit.

Life in the country is much simpler. My father finishes his study work before sunset, and he doesn’t need to concentrate on writing and reading at night like in the city, and there are not so many students who come to ask questions here and there to disturb him. Qing Si.His health has also improved markedly since being in the country.Occasionally, people came to visit my father from the city, and they were all amazed that he could turn rosy after losing his beloved wife.

When we first moved here, my sister was only 12 years old, and I was twice her age.I have to take care of such a young sister and old father, just like a little housewife: mending the clothes and socks of the family, teaching my sister to read, and handling all trivial housework.Soon after, my younger sister was admitted to a girls' middle school in the city, and lived in a dormitory, returning home once a week. During this period, it was only me, my father, and the old servant Zhang Tong.But during winter and summer vacations, when my sister comes back, we will be much more lively with this lively little girl at home.

In the hot summer afternoon, it was as quiet as sleep. My father was in the study, fanning banana leaves with one hand and writing with a pen in the other. The weather was sweltering and everyone was sweating profusely.But because he was concentrating on the work of the book case, he never felt that the affairs outside his body had anything to do with him. He was so interested in writing.

At this time, I often take my little sister to enjoy the shade in the path surrounded by bamboo forests, listening to her little mouth tell about the school life, we laugh a lot.It seems that only when the younger sister is at home can the quiet life of the past be broken.

When the smoke from the kitchen was curling upwards and merged with the evening mist, my father put down his pen, came out of the study, and took my sister for a walk in the field, while I packed up my homework or books and went to the kitchen to urge Lao Zhang to prepare dinner.After they came back from a walk, we all sat in the courtyard for dinner. We watched the crows return to their nests at the dining table, making a lot of noise. In the countryside, this is the harbinger of nightfall.The crow passed by, the sky darkened, and Si Lai fell into silence.Although there were a few sirens whining in the distance, piercing the loneliness in the sky.It's time to rest soon after holding the lamp.I repelled mosquitoes in my father's bedroom, put down the curtains, and made the bed.Although his father lost his mother, he did not change all his habits in life.

If I have free time in the morning, I often follow my father and lead my sister out for a walk, stepping on the dewy weeds and smelling the smell of wet soil in the morning, which is very comfortable.

Crouching in the house like a bug in winter, life with less contact with the outside.When spring comes, I also like to do the work of planting and turning over the dried leaves and weeds of the next year.The days are like this every day, every year, and the spring and winter are unknowingly in the countryside.In the first one or two years, not only my father often took us to the city to buy books and items, but also relatives, friends and students in the city often went to the countryside to live for a while.But later my father became more and more content with living in the country and didn't bother to go to the city, and the number of relatives and friends who came to visit my father was not as much as the previous two years, and we were gradually forgotten by people.

But my aunt goes to the countryside every year before the Ching Ming Festival as usual.When she saw me this year, she said in surprise, "Fang'er, you've lost weight!" I didn't feel it, touched my chin, then smiled and said, "Really? I'm not sick!"

My aunt's expression seemed to be different from previous years. She often watched me, and sometimes talked with my father about things that we didn't want us to hear.One day I went to the kitchen in the backyard and heard my aunt talking to Lao Zhang: "The old man is confused, he has to make a fuss, you can't let the eldest lady serve him for the rest of his life!..." The feeling of eavesdropping was very uncomfortable, so I hurried around the front yard go.There is a knot in my heart, is my aunt going to continue the string for my father?Seeing that I've lost weight, she thinks I'm tired of housekeeping, right?But I never meant that. My father, my family, are duty-bound, so how can we talk about whether we are tired or not?I think my aunt misunderstood me a bit.However, if you really want to continue the strings for your father, of course there is nothing wrong with it. I don't know who my aunt is looking for, so it's no wonder she often talks to my father in whispers.

Another day, we were chatting, and my sister also came home from school that day.My aunt looked at me, but turned around and asked my younger sister, "Lan'er, are you in your teens this year?" "Sixteen, auntie!" My aunt really doesn't want to know the age of my little sister, but wants to use this to calculate my age!I also know that the reason why my aunt is reluctant to ask me directly is because I am not young anymore—28 years old.

(End of this chapter)