Old things in the south

Chapter 59 The late blooming rhododendron (1)
As soon as Yafang entered the room, she threw her handbag on the table, threw herself on the bamboo bed that creaked as soon as she lay on it, and let out a long sigh of relief.Lie on your back, with one leg propped on the bed, the other hanging down along the edge of the bed, with your hands folded under your head, your eyes staring straight at the sugarcane slabs on the roof.The tired body was rested, but the tide of thoughts began to attack her again, and a conversation at the cousin's house surfaced again.

It is common for the cousin to ask her to have lunch, but the cousin said that the brother-in-law was on a business trip, and she was so bored, it was a lie.She knew that with four carrot-headed children and a brother-in-law who married a wife whose hands and feet became useless dependents, the cousin was as busy as a pendulum all day, without a moment of rest.My brother-in-law is on a business trip, and my cousin is eager to breathe a sigh of relief, how can she say she is bored?She knew that her cousin was caring and thoughtful, and she sympathized with her single cousin, so she always invited her to have a light meal every few days, or sent someone to deliver some side dishes.She is indescribably grateful for her cousin's kindness, and every time she goes there, she can't help but bring a few bags, big and small, to give joy to the short people who greet her at the door calling "Auntie".

After dinner, my cousin coaxed the younger ones to sleep, and the older ones put a few pieces of candy in their hands and drove them out. The room was immediately as silent as a theater after the guests had left.The cousin seemed to have something to say to her, and Yafang felt it, because she could already see that the cousin was embarrassed and hesitant to speak.She likes her cousin because she is so sophisticated and younger than her age. Before she could speak, she blushed and stammered:
"Cousin, let me tell you something. I don't know if you are angry or not?"

angry?What anger could she encounter from her cousin?Yafang couldn't help tilting her head with a smile and asked:
"If there is something worth making me angry, tell me."

The cousin was even more embarrassed, and hurriedly shook her head and said with a smile:
"No, no, it's really a very good thing. When Li Xing left, he repeatedly asked me to talk to my cousin."

"Can there be something that is both irritating and good?" Yafang teased her again.

"Oh, cousin, don't laugh at me who can't speak, okay? That's right. Lixing's teacher is the factory director in the south. His surname is Zhang. His wife has been dead for four or five years, and his children are all on the mainland. Li Xing really wanted to introduce it to his cousin, but he was afraid that she would get angry, that's what happened."

"Ah!" Yafang was stunned.Everything about marriage, such as why she is still not married after forty days, whether she has ever been in love in the past, etc., has never been discussed with her cousin.Because there is a certain age gap with my cousin, and I only met this cousin after I came to Taiwan, and the cousin and his wife have always been very polite, treating her with respect for the eldest sister.So it was difficult for Yafang to answer such a sudden question, so she could only half-jokingly say:

"Zong Yu, when did your virtuous couple turn your thoughts to me again?"

The cousin was obviously afraid that Yafang would get angry, so she blushed again anxiously: "Cousin, I'm not joking with you! Lixing has long wanted to introduce a girlfriend to Mr. Zhang, because Mr. Zhang is very nice, but he is looking for a girlfriend in Taiwan. It’s really not easy to be a Miss from other provinces, Li Xing thought of her cousin, and the age is also suitable, Mr. Zhang is 46 years old this year, and his status is not bad.”

I don't know if the cousin's words are wrong, or because of Yafang's age, she has a sense of inferiority in marriage. She thinks that the reason why the cousin and his wife want to introduce her to Mr. Zhang is "it's really hard to find a suitable lady from other provinces in Taiwan." It's easy", the thought flashed through her mind like a meteor in an instant, but then she said with an air of indifference:
"Why do you want to get married at such an old age!"

Probably the cousin was clumsy with words again, and fell into silence for a while.Yafang felt that it was inappropriate, and wanted to find something to ease the stalemate, so she pointed to the vase of rhododendrons on the table and asked:

"Hey, why is it at this time, there are also rhododendrons, and the ones in Caoshan have already suffered a complete defeat!"

"Yes, this is picked from a late-blooming rhododendron in the yard. Here, look." The cousin pointed out the window.

No, there is a rhododendron in full bloom, leaning against the corner alone, but the clusters of pink flowers are also quite proud, it is the only late-blooming rhododendron in this small courtyard.

"cousin."

"Ah."

"Isn't it okay to compare you to a late-blooming rhododendron? It doesn't matter if it blooms late."

Yafang's nose was pressed against the glass window, looking at the Rhododendron plant, thoughtful, but did not answer, the cousin continued:
"Lixing is on a business trip to the south this time, and that Mr. Zhang is also on a business trip to the north, and we may come back together. If my cousin agrees, why don't you all meet up? It doesn't matter if you make friends first."

Yafang turned her head and smiled calmly, and replied with a noncommittal sentence:
"You Xian couple are going to introduce me!"

But when Yafang returned to the dormitory, her thoughts were fluctuating. She couldn't forget the late-blooming rhododendron in her cousin's house and the clever analogy of her cousin.

I have been in Taiwan for three years, and it has been more than two years since I moved into this dormitory. The ladies on the opposite bed have changed four or five times. Seeing that they got married and moved away one by one, the bed is empty now. I don’t know where they will move in tomorrow. A single lady comes.Thinking of this, her eyes couldn't help falling from the sugarcane board.Landing on the empty bed opposite, the empty bed sneered at her like a flat face, she got angry and looked away again, and turned to look out the window.All I could see was a banyan tree blown by the breeze and a floating cloud.When a person's thoughts come, even a cloud or a leaf can cause boundless thoughts, and the net of memories is also scattered:

The irrelevant relationship with marriage should have started in the year when the female teacher graduated, and returned home from P city with a diploma, the gray-haired widowed mother was so happy that her face was wrinkled and blossomed.She also felt that after getting a diploma, she could stick to her mother and take care of her from now on. The widowed mother has struggled with her only daughter for many years, and now she can finally relax.But the mother couldn't stay idle, and on the third day after returning home, she raised the important matter of marriage to Yafang. The other party was her aunt's cousin, the son and brother of the town who was two years younger than her.

My uncle has two rice farms in the town. There are many barren years in the north, but they are the most capable of producing rich rice merchants.My aunt gave birth to such a precious son in her whole life. She often said proudly that if the uncle hadn't sprayed the cousin with two mouthfuls of opium, he might be extinct today. The mouth is afraid of melting, and I don't know how to pamper it properly.After graduating from middle school in the city, he returned to the town to be a young master, sick and weak.It was rare for Yafang to meet him when he was studying abroad, but every time he saw his pitiful appearance, he couldn't help but wonder, how would such a man feel about his own life?
I can't talk to my cousin, I have nothing to say, they are just acquaintances who nod, who would have thought that my mother would propose this marriage at this moment, it turned out to be a feeling of pity, but somehow it became extremely disgusting, she couldn't help but angrily told her mother explain:
"Mother, why are you so confused!"

She rejected it categorically, and her mother was a cowardly woman, she wiped her tears and sighed, and was so frightened that she never dared to mention it again.

Coming back to this small town is like adding a phoenix to the town. The mother-in-law who came to propose a marriage stepped through the threshold, and the mother-in-law was scared away for the first time. His daughter always pouted and waved her hands, afraid of offending her.Yafang also hated these three aunts and six wives, and when she saw people coming, she kept her lips tightly shut and didn't smile at all.Women in the countryside have never seen such an educated woman, and they are too frightened to come to the door.

If there is anything Yafang feels sorry for her mother, when she thinks about it by chance many years later, it is that she finally did not get married during her mother's lifetime, which should be the most embarrassing thing for her mother to die.The three years of teaching life have been very peaceful.I didn't expect to lose my poor mother suddenly. After my mother died, I have been drifting in the sea since then. I have been living without a home, and my career has been constantly changing. I moved from this single dormitory to another, sometimes with friends, and sometimes with relatives. Meals, the days are so piecemeal.But why she hasn't embarked on the road of marriage all these years, she can't answer.

Not because of celibacy, and was the object of many suitors, there is no specific reason that can explain her isolation from marriage.Said it was due to the unfavorableness at the beginning, the impression of my cousin was too bad, so I had a bad feeling for marriage?She said that her ideals were too high, but she never had the standard of an ideal husband in her mind.Maybe I am too ruthless and lack the enthusiasm of youth?Or is career more important than family?That's no wonder, I've been in the rivers and lakes for so many years, and I just climbed from teaching elementary school to middle school teacher. It seems that the purpose of my career has always been to solve my life, and I have never had a great career.All in all, none of these were absolute reasons for her refusal to marry.

There seems to be an inexplicable indifferent attitude towards world affairs, and the days pass by lightly.But when she saw that her age had brought a certain point of view to the world, she couldn't help wondering whether her own existence was meaningless?What's more, there is a warm aftertaste for the things I hated in the past, and everything in the past seems to be better than the present.Some people were so resolutely rejected by her, it seems a little silly now to think about it.

When she was teaching at P City Girls' High School, it should have been her heyday, because she often represented the school to participate in various assemblies, or led students to participate in activities outside.There are more opportunities to contact the outside world, and more people to know, and the men she admires come one after another, some of whom she can't even remember their names.

Li, who teaches at the boy's middle school next door, is the one who has been obsessed with Ya Fang. He has parted hair in the middle of his life and will never change his appearance. Seeing Li she was disgusted, so she swore in her heart.Later, Yafang introduced Li to a middle school classmate, who knew that the two hit it off, and Yafang sneered inwardly. Is this how men's love is?Later, the classmate was afraid that the man would not forget his love for Yafang, and even showed that he did not want Yafang to join them. Yafang was so angry that she raised her eyebrows in the dormitory and sarcastically said: "Men are so rare?"

He took students to participate in acting in a repertory theater troupe, and even attracted a ghost director who had just graduated from an art school and had no formal career.At that time, it was popular for students to act in dramas, so this amateur director who played a guest role had plenty of time to meet female students.Living in an apartment in Xicheng, the poor artist who has eaten his last meal and never finished his meal, unexpectedly also has ideas on Yafang.Yafang didn't like the long hair, black collar and floral attire. When she saw him, she turned her head away, feeling as cold as ice.

She also remembered that Zhang Lai, who went to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, is his surname Zhang?She was a little confused.It's so ridiculous to ask someone to introduce her before going abroad. It doesn't matter if you know her, but you can write warm love letters when you arrive in the United States.She knew in her heart that after finishing her master's degree and doctoral degree, the future will be long, and she will wait slowly when she first met. What a vague and distant love.She didn't reply, and it became cold over there, and there was no news from then on.

It should be a youth full of fiery enthusiasm, but Yafang is cold and arrogant, and has no mercy or compassion for her suitors.A romantic novelist once described her because she couldn't pursue her, saying: "That is a tall, cold woman who smells of ginger!"

Where did all these suitors who might marry her go?Like the people on the screen, they appear alive in the dark, but when the lights are on, they disappear without a trace!
(End of this chapter)