Samayoi

Chapter 17: In the restaurant (1)
I traveled from the north to the southeast, and visited my hometown by detour, so I came to three cities.This city is only thirty miles away from my hometown, and it takes half a day to get there by boat. I once worked as a teacher in a school here for a year.After the snow in the deep winter, the scenery is desolate, the combination of laziness and nostalgia, I actually stayed temporarily in the Luosi Hotel in S City; this hotel did not exist before.The city circle is not big, so I searched for a few old colleagues who I thought I could meet, but none of them were there.In less than two hours, my interest has long since faded, and I regret that I have been so troublesome here.

The hotel I live in rents rooms and does not sell food. The food must be ordered separately, but it is tasteless and tastes like chewing mud.Outside the window there are only stained and mottled walls covered with dead berry moss; above is the lead-colored sky, which is absolutely white, and the light snow is flying again.I was not full for lunch and had nothing to do for entertainment, so I naturally thought that there was a small restaurant I was familiar with before, called Yishiju, which was not far from the hotel.I immediately locked the door and went out to the restaurant.In fact, it's just to escape the boredom among customers for the time being, and it's not just to get drunk.The Stone House is still there, and the small, damp storefront and dilapidated signboards are still there; but there is no acquaintance from the shopkeeper to the waiter, and I have become a complete stranger in this Stone House.However, I finally stepped up the familiar escalator in the corner of the room, and from there I went up to the small building.There are still five small board tables above; only the rear window, which was originally a wooden lattice, has been replaced with glass.

"A catty of Shaojiu. — Vegetables? Ten pieces of fried tofu and more chili sauce!"

Saying this to the waiter who came up with me, I walked towards the rear window and sat down at a table by the window.The upstairs is "empty", so I can choose the best seat: I can overlook the abandoned garden downstairs.This garden probably does not belong to the restaurant. I have looked at it many times before, sometimes in snowy weather.But now, from the eyes accustomed to the north, it is quite surprising: a few old plum trees are actually blooming with flowers, as if they don’t care about the deep winter; A dozen or so red flowers stand out from the dense green leaves, their splendor shining like fire in the snow, angry and arrogant, as if willing to travel far away while despising tourists.At this time, I suddenly thought of the moistness of the snow here, lingering, crystal clear and shiny, not as dry as the powder of new snow, when a strong wind blows, it will fly up and fill the sky like smoke. "Guest, wine."

The waiter said lazily, put down the cup, chopsticks, jug and dishes, the wine arrived.I turned to the board table, arranged the utensils, and poured out the wine.I feel that the north is certainly not my old hometown, but coming from the south can only be regarded as a guest. No matter how the dry snow falls over there, or how attached the soft snow here is, it doesn't matter to me anymore.I was a little sad, but took a sip of wine comfortably.The taste of the wine is very pure; the fried tofu is also cooked very well; unfortunately, the chili sauce is too weak, and the people of Sancheng do not know how to eat spicy food.

Probably because it was in the afternoon, this could be called a restaurant, but it didn't look like a restaurant. I had already drank three glasses of wine, and there were still four empty tables beside me.Looking at the abandoned garden, I gradually felt lonely, but I didn't want other drinkers to come up.

Occasionally, he heard footsteps on the stairs, so he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, and he felt relieved when he saw that it was a coffin, so he drank two more glasses of wine.

I thought it must be a drinker this time, because the footsteps I heard were much slower than the waiter's.About the time he finished walking the stairs, I raised my head to look at this innocent companion in fear, and stood up in surprise at the same time.I unexpectedly met a friend here by accident—if he still allows me to call him a friend now.The person who came up was obviously my old classmate, and also an old colleague from the time when I was a teacher. Although his appearance has changed a bit, he was familiar with him at first sight, but his unique movements have become extremely slow, unlike the agile and capable Lu Weifu back then. .

"Ah, Weifu, is that you? I never expected to meet you here."

"Ah, it's you? I never would have guessed..."

I invited him to sit with me, but he seemed to hesitate before sitting down.I was surprised at first, then sad and unhappy.Looking closely at his appearance, he still has a disheveled beard and hair; his pale square face is thinner.He is energetic and calm, or rather depressed, and the eyes under his thick and black eyebrows have also lost their brilliance, but when he slowly looks around, he suddenly flashes the shooting eyes that I often saw in school when he looked at the waste garden. come light.

"We," I said happily, but rather unnaturally, "it's been ten years since we parted. I knew you were in Jinan, but I was too lazy to write a letter."

"They're all the same. But now I've been in Taiyuan for more than two years, with my mother. When I came back to pick her up, I knew you had moved away, and it was very clean."

"What are you doing in Taiyuan?" I asked.

"Teaching, in a fellow countryman's home."

"What happened before?"

"Before this?" He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and held it in his mouth. Looking at the smoke, he said thoughtfully, "It's nothing more than doing some boring things. Do."

He also asked me about the situation after the farewell; while I told him an outline, I asked the waiter to bring the cups and chopsticks first, so that he could drink my wine first, and then go to add two catties.In the meantime, we ordered food. We were unceremonious before, but now we gave in. Finally, we couldn’t tell who ordered which one, so we specified four dishes from the waiter’s oral report: fennel beans, frozen Meat, fried tofu, dried herring.

"As soon as I came back, I thought I was ridiculous." With a cigarette in one hand and a wine glass in the other, he said to me with a half-smile. "When I was a teenager, I saw a bee or a fly stop at one place, and when I was frightened by something, it flew away immediately, but after flying in a small circle, it came back and stopped at the same place. Poor. I didn’t expect to fly back myself, but in a small circle. I didn’t expect you to come back too. Can’t you fly farther?”

"It's hard to say, it's probably just a small detour." I also said with a half-smile. "But why did you fly back?"

"It's still for boring things." He drank a glass of wine in one gulp, took a few puffs of cigarettes, and his eyes were slightly dilated. "Boring.—But let's talk."

The waiter brought in newly added food and wine, filling up the tables, and the smoke and the heat of fried tofu from the upstairs seemed to be lively; outside the building, the snow was falling more and more.

"Perhaps you knew," he went on, "that I once had a little brother who died at the age of three and was buried here in the country. I don't even remember what he looked like, but my mother said it was A very cute child, and I am also very congenial, and she still seems to cry when she mentions it. This spring, a cousin sent a letter, saying that his grave has been gradually flooded, and he will soon be afraid. If I'm going to fall into the river, I have to find something quickly. My mother was very anxious when she found out, and she couldn't sleep for several nights——she can read letters by herself. But what can I do? I have no money, no time: There was no law at that time.

"Until now, taking advantage of the free time during the annual vacation, I have to go back to the south to bury him." He drank another glass of wine, looked out of the window, and said, "How can this be the case over there? In the snow There will be flowers, and it will not freeze under the snow. Just the day before yesterday, I bought a small coffin in the city—because I expected that the one under the ground should have rotted long ago—with cotton wool and quilts, I hired four coffins. Geotechnical workers, I went to the countryside to be buried. I was suddenly very happy at that time, willing to dig a grave and see the bones of my little brother who was once very close to me: I have never experienced these things in my life. When I got to the cemetery, Sure enough, the river just gnawed in, and it was less than two feet away from the grave. The poor grave has not been cultivated for two years, and it has been leveled. I stood in the snow, pointed at him decisively and said to the earthworker, "Dig it!" "I am really a mediocre person. I felt that my voice was a bit strange at this time. This order was also the greatest order in my life. But the earthworkers were not surprised and started digging. I went to look at the cave, and sure enough, the coffin was almost rotten, leaving only a pile of wood threads and small pieces of wood. My heart was trembling, and I went to pull these out, very carefully, to take a look at my coffin. Little brother, it was unexpected! Bedding, clothes, bones, nothing at all. I thought, these are all gone, I have always heard that the most difficult thing to rot is hair, maybe there is still. I lay down, it should be a pillow Look carefully in the soil where it is, but there is no trace. There is no trace!"

I suddenly saw that the circles of his eyes were slightly red, but I knew immediately that he was drunk.He doesn't eat much food, but just keeps drinking wine. He has already drank more than a catty, and his expression and behavior have become lively. He is approaching the Lu Weifu I saw before. Turning around, also holding the wine glass, listening silently directly opposite.

"Actually, we don't need to move any more. We just need to level the ground and sell the coffin; that's all. It's a bit strange for me to sell the coffin, but as long as the price is extremely cheap, the original shop will take it. At least I can get it back." A few pennies for wine. But I don’t like this, I still spread out the bedding, wrapped some soil where his body was before with cotton, wrapped it up, packed it in a new coffin, and transported it to the cemetery where my father was buried. He was buried next to his grave. Because of the brick pier outside, I was busy for most of the day yesterday:

(End of this chapter)