fingers of musicians

The long wooden table was placed near the threshold, the door was wide open, and the sunlight slanted in, illuminating the porcelain white altars and jars on the table.

He Shenping was sitting on one side of the wooden table, with a glazed teapot in front of him, on which he was painting a branch of plum blossom.On the opposite side sat a man who was older than him, his hair was dyed a little white, and his rough fingers traced a magnificent landscape on a huge bottle.

"Mr. Jiang—" Wang Bin ran over from a distance. After running for a long time, his face was tanned and flushed, "Hey, Mr. He is also here."

Jiang Helai stared at the bottle with squinted eyes, the hand holding the pen was hanging in the air, and the other hand pointed at Wang Bin: "Slow down, the mountain will shake when you come here."

Wang Bin wiped off his sweat and said with a smile: "I won't move, you can continue to paint. It's just that the factory has set up a working group and is holding an appraisal meeting. The leader of the group asked me to call you, saying that it's almost May. You have also been here for three years, and you need to be identified."

Jiang He came to answer: "Oh." Then he continued to draw his landscape.

Wang Bin said in a low voice: "You don't know yet, if the appraisal result is good, you won't be staying in the porcelain factory."

Jiang He came to draw and asked, "Oh, so what is the appraisal result?"

Wang Bin said: "I don't know how to identify... I reckon that he can get along with the masses and be a good person."

Jiang He came to sneer, and twitched his mustache: "You think I don't know? I've done the appraisal twice. If he's a good person, he should leave early."

"Is he a good person? It doesn't matter what you say, and what I say doesn't count. It has to be said by the working group." Wang Bin looked at Jiang Helai who was still painting, ignored him, scratched his head anxiously, frowning, "Oh, you can go, or how can I explain to the leader of the working group?"

Jiang He came to draw for a long time, and finally filled in the background color of the mountains and rivers almost. Then he put the pen down, stood up and stretched his waist: "Okay, let's go, maybe I will become a good person this year." Before leaving, he took a look and congratulated Shen Ping's plum blossom, "Brother Shen Ping, you plum blossom are too reserved."

Watching Jiang He coming and going, Wang Bin finally breathed a sigh of relief, and started chatting with He Shenping: "Mr. He, if the working group asks you to go for an appraisal, you must not be like Mr. Jiang, and ignore anyone. inside……"

He Shenping didn't say much, Wang Bin saw that he was busy, so he said hello and left.After walking more than a dozen steps, he was stopped by some workers, turned to the base of the wall, and received a slap on the head before he could react: "Wang Bin, did you hit your head?"

Wang Bin waved the person away with a wave of his arm, and raised his eyes to see the person coming: "What's the mess, just scold me if something goes wrong?"

"There are no two educated people in this factory. Either they ignore us like an old man surnamed Jiang, or they act like crazy. Finally, someone who is willing to write to us comes here. It’s been several months, if he gets the appraisal, hey, okay, he patted his ass and left, then who will read and write letters for us?”

Wang Bin let out a "bah" and said, "You grandsons, they didn't write letters to you."

"Wang Bin, do you still want to write a letter to your sister? If he leaves, you can hold your broken iron box and cry, and keep acting like a good person here."

"That is, we have already agreed that if Mr. He is also called for appraisal, then we will report the situation to the organization and say that he is not in harmony with the masses and has not been rehabilitated, so we cannot let him go."

Wang Bin was so angry that he punched the speaker with his backhand: "Have your conscience been eaten by a dog?"

"Your conscience is eaten by dogs." Several people held Wang Bin down, "Mr. He just writes and draws some pictures when he stays here. If he is sick, someone will beat his meals, so why can't he stay? "

"That's right, I traded his job with him. Now he doesn't carry a basket on his shoulders. What's wrong with staying here to write?"

Wang Bin was not eloquent enough, and he couldn't argue with the others. He had no education, and he felt that what they said was wrong, but he couldn't tell what was wrong.

After the other people left, he stood at the base of the wall for a long time, kicking and beating, and even smashed the adobe bricks on the wall to powder. Looking at the marks on the adobe bricks, he suddenly had an idea and turned to look for them. He Shenping.

When he went back, Jiang Helai had already returned, so he hurriedly asked, "How is Mr. Jiang's identification?"

Jiang Helai didn't answer, just took a very thin pen, and casually added a white-headed old man to the endless river surface of the bottle.

He Shenping finished his painting of plum blossoms, and was about to ask Jiang He to give some pointers, when he saw the old man, he sighed, "A cloud of mist and rain will be your life."

Jiang Helai wrote two lines next to the river and mountain, flamboyant and phoenix dancing, and He Shenping even saw a little carelessness between the words:

Looking back at the desolate place

There will be no rain or sunshine when we return home

Wang Bin looked at it for a long time, but didn't understand: "What is written here, how is the identification?"

He Shenping looked at it, and a smile appeared in his eyes: "Mr. Jiang is leaving."

Wang Bin wondered, "Mr. He, how did you find out?"

He Shenping didn't speak, Jiang He came to put down his pen, waved his hand and left, saying as he walked, "It's settled, we'll leave in September."

Wang Bin looked at Jiang Helai's back, and then remembered what he was going to do when he came back: "Mr. He... If you are free, can you teach me how to write?"

He Shenping didn't ask the reason, but just replied: "Okay." In the eyes of a person like him, learning to write doesn't need a reason, only if you don't learn it.

After Wang Bin started to learn characters, some people were also moved and followed him to learn.At first it was taught in the house, but later when there were too many people, the people in the back row who He Shenping was writing on the paper couldn't see and couldn't follow along, so he changed to teach outside.

There is a plum grove near the porcelain factory, and it is just right to study under the shade of a tree during the noon break. He Shenping writes on the ground with branches, and the others follow suit.Later, the dawn got earlier and earlier, the sun was too strong at noon, and there were only a few people who could stay under the shade of the trees, so the class time was changed to early morning before work.

Gradually, a few people were able to write simple letters by themselves and send them home, and many who were unwilling to learn at all still asked He Shenping to write for them as usual.

One day after dinner, He Shenping wrote a few more letters for others. When he returned to the dormitory from the cafeteria, it was almost dark, and suddenly he saw a distraught figure walking towards the outside of the porcelain factory.

He recognized the figure from behind, hurried over and called, "Mr. Jiang?"

Jiang Helai waved him away: "Don't talk to me."

He Shenping was worried, so he followed Jiang Helai, left the porcelain factory, and followed him to Meizilin.

Jiang He came to dig under a plum tree. He didn't have any tools, only two hands, and the dust was blowing up with his bare hands. He was muttering something while digging.

The mound of soil around the pit was getting higher and higher, and a porcelain jar was exposed in the pit.

Jiang He came to carry the jar out, touched the body of the altar for a long time, and then lifted the seal on the jar, only heard a "boo", and in an instant, the plum grove was filled with the aroma of wine.

Jiang Helai sat beside the mound with the jar in his arms, and after a long time he looked up at He Shenping, and found that he had a lunch box from the cafeteria in his hand.

"Lend me your lunch box." Jiang He came to open the lunch box, picked up the jar and filled the two-divided lunch box and lid with plum wine, "Drink it? The plum wine that has been hidden for three years is cheap for you. "

He Shenping picked up the lid, sat next to the tree root, took a sip, it was very fragrant but sour.

Jiang Helai drank half of the lunch box in one gulp, and hiccupped: "Originally, this wine won't be opened until I leave, but since I'm not leaving now, let's drink it early."

He Shenping hesitated for a moment, then Fang asked, "Why didn't you leave?"

Jiang He ignored him and just drank the wine. Half of the lunch box was left after he finished it. Then he picked up the jar and filled another lunch box. He drank again and poured it again, until he finally emptied the wine jar. The soft plums spilled out and rolled all over the ground.

He stared at the plums in a daze, and suddenly vomited, making himself a mess, and began to cry after he vomited.

"Brother Shenping, I remember you have a pair of children, don't you?" He asked crying.

He Shenping didn't know how to persuade others, so he could only answer: "Yes."

Jiang Helai asked again, "They wrote you a letter."

He Shenping replied: "Yes."

Jiang He said, "Tell me about it."

He Shenping said a few words, and wanted to help Jiang He back and forth, but Jiang He refused, and kept saying, "Tell me more, talk more...how did they grow up?"

All the time, the sky was completely dark, the crescent moon rose from the distant hills over the tops of the plum trees, Jiang He came to drink too much wine, kept throwing up, and fell asleep on the ground when he had nothing to vomit.

Early the next morning, when He Shenping was going to class, someone bumped into him on the way.

The man ran back in a hurry, didn't see He Shenping clearly at all, bumped into him and cursed: "Watch the road, watch the road, good dogs don't block the way."

He Shenping helped him to the side: "What's wrong?"

Hearing the voice, the man looked up and saw that it was indeed He Shenping. He also learned calligraphy from He Shenping, so he immediately apologized: "Mr. He, I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry."

He Shenping didn't care, just asked: "What happened?"

"Mei Zilin, Jiang Helai—" Except for He Shenping and Wang Bin, no one called Jiang Helai, sir.

The night before last, He Shenping had carried Jiang Helai back, and now when he heard about Meizilin, he remembered that the jar of plum wine and the remnants of the place hadn't been cleaned up yet.

But the next moment, the man said: "Jiang He came and hanged himself. He was hanging on a tree in the plum grove. His face scared him to death. There was a field of rotten plums under the tree, and a wine jar. The wine was given to him." Drunk..."

The voice was left behind, He Shenping ran to Meizilin, and saw the person hanging on the tree.

He Shenping tried to hold Jiang Helai down, but he couldn't do it alone, so he picked up another stone and went to grind the rope.

The rope finally broke, and the person hit the ground with a "bang", He Shenping hugged him, his body was still warm, not stiff, and still smelled of plum wine, not much different from when he carried the person back.

He Shenping put the person on his back and ran all the way back to the porcelain factory. When he met a person who was going to Meizilin for class, he said: "There is no class today."

He said a word, followed by one person, and finally a group of people followed He Shenping back to the factory.

If something goes wrong, workers still have to go in. The stones in the mining area are waiting to be picked, the fire is burning in the kiln, and the blanks are waiting to be glazed. Which process is worthless, and there is no waiting.

So it wasn't until night that He Shenping knew what was going on.

Jiang Helai's roommate handed several letters to He Shenping, saying that Jiang Helai had them under his pillow, and asked him to read them.

He Shenping looked over one by one, and the roommate asked: "What's going on? I think he lost his mind after taking the letter. Did he not let him go or something?"

Holding the letter, He Shenping looked up and looked around for a long time, finally found a chair, and sat down slowly while leaning on the back of the chair.

The roommate said anxiously: "Mr. He, tell me quickly."

He Shenping said: "There was a famine in the north, and his family... starved to death."

"All starved to death? Parents, daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law all starved to death? Sons and grandchildren also starved to death? Isn't it already summer?"

"It's not yet the beginning of spring... It's just that the news came late." He Shenping's stomach churned, he tried to hold back but finally vomited out the whole dinner.

"Why did you vomit? Did you eat it?" The roommate hurriedly found a towel and poured a glass of water, "It's too sinful. I heard that there are several people in his family. Poor, how can they all starve to death?"

He Shenping sat there for a long time without drinking a sip of water.

He didn't say anything until he left, not all of them starved to death.

That summer, He Shenping often vomited and had no appetite, especially meat. Fortunately, the workers in the porcelain factory didn't have a few chances to eat meat that year.

Sometimes he would anxiously walk around the porcelain factory, trying to find something like a qin to play, but he couldn't find it. In the end, he had to cut down a bamboo of the right thickness, which was almost like a flute. The thing that sits under the plum tree and blows.

Yilin's plums turned from green to red, and they were almost plucked. Only the plum tree that He Shenping often leaned against was always full of fruits, hanging so heavy that every branch seemed heavy, and finally the overripe plums fell off. land, no one eats it.

There were a few remaining branches, He Shenping picked them to make plum wine and buried them in the ground.

As the weather turned colder, the early morning class was changed to noon, and more and more people could write and read letters by themselves. He Shenping stopped talking blindly, and also talked about articles, and later talked about history. Stick to your own country.

One day after class, Wang Bin waited for everyone to leave, and secretly stuffed an egg for He Shenping. He said, "Mr. He, you are so skinny, eat one."

He Shenping didn't accept it.

This was the seventh time he stuffed He Shenping with eggs that month, and He Shenping didn't accept them every time.Wang Bin can stuff an egg twice, boil it before dawn, stuff it once on the first day, stuff it again on the second day, the egg will be broken on the third day, he has to eat it himself, and cook a new one on the fourth day .

When he secretly cooked his fifth egg that month in the boiler room, a farmer who lived nearby found the porcelain factory and said that someone had stolen his egg.

"There is only one black hen at home, and the eggs are gone just after the nest is still hot." The farmer grabbed two wings of a chicken and brought it to the factory leader to complain.