Living Paper

nostalgia/article

Huo Zhenye opened the door and went home, Bai Zhun fell asleep on the rocking chair by the fireplace, he walked over lightly, pulled up the slipped blanket and covered Bai Zhun.

Bai Zhun frowned slightly. He had always been a light sleeper, but he woke up suddenly when he heard the movement. His breathing was short at first, and then he calmed down when he smelled the peppermint scent on Huo Zhenye's body.

Let go of the hand holding the bamboo stick: "Are you back?"

"What's wrong?" Huo Zhenye asked.

Bai Zhun shook his head: "It's nothing, it's just a dream." He felt that the scene in the dream was very familiar, but he couldn't remember where he was.

The tip of the nose sniffed lightly: "What's the smell?"

Huo Zhenye smiled: "You have a dog's nose? So good." He took out a paper package from his bag, which contained two roasted sweet potatoes, "I saw it when I was driving by, I don't know if you like it or not. "

Bai Zhun looked at the two round roasted sweet potatoes with dusty skins, and a look of nostalgia appeared in his eyes: "I lived in a rural village when I was young, and I ate these every winter."

This thing is much cheaper than food, and almost everyone in the village eats it.

Every winter, there will be snow in the village, and the bamboo forest in the mountains will be white.

There is a fire at home to warm up, the master will put a few sweet potatoes on the fire, Bai Zhun waits for the sweet potatoes to be roasted while warming the fire, and pulls out the roasted sweet potatoes with thick bamboo sticks.

The senior brother will pick the biggest one and break it open, blowing on the air and giving him the red heart inside.

"You wait." Huo Zhenye went to the kitchen with two roasted sweet potatoes, and came back with a tray after a while.

Two roasted sweet potatoes have been cut in the middle. Cream, butter, caster sugar, honey and jam are placed on the tray. Knives and forks are ready, and they are placed on the tea table in front of Bai Zhun.

"Taste it." Huo Zhenye rubbed his hands, forked a piece with a small silver fork, dipped it in cream and brought it to Bai Zhun's mouth.

Bai Zhun opened his mouth to eat, the sweetness of roasted sweet potatoes and the aroma of butter mixed in the room, just like those winters he spent when he was a child, but with a little more sweetness than those winters.

"This is dim sum. I also asked Mama Liu to make salted Duxian and bring it over. After eating the sweet ones, eat some salty ones."

Bai Zhun ate less and less, today it was rare to be interested in roasted sweet potatoes, Huo Zhenye's mouth was almost grinning behind his ears, watching him eat half a roasted sweet potato, he felt a sense of accomplishment in coaxing the child to finish the meal.

Bai Zhun tasted every flavor, and when he took the first bite, he remembered what he had dreamed about.

The landscape and bamboo forest in the dream was Lingguan Village, where Master was buried. He suddenly raised his head and asked, "Is it almost the winter solstice?"

Huo Zhenye was startled, took a look at the newspaper wrapped in sweet potatoes, counted the days, there were still three days left.

"There are three more days for winter, let me know if you have anything to prepare." Qimen may have different rules for celebrating the winter solstice, but no matter what, Bai Zhun can't worry about it anymore.

Bai Zhun lowered his head and counted the days. It has been exactly seven years since Master passed away this year.

"At that time, invite Xiao Jinbao to play a piece of "Legend of the White Snake"."

"Master loves to listen to her playing and singing?" Huo Zhenye did the calculations, the age was not right, Xiao Jinbao was at most sixteen or seventeen, before Master Bai Zhun left, even if she had learned the pipa, she hadn't graduated yet.

"It turns out that she was sung by her master, and her name is Yu Ruyi." Thinking about it now, this Yu Ruyi is probably one of the master's old friends.

"Okay, I'll call right now and invite her over on the day of the winter solstice."

Huo Zhenye called Changsantangzi, but they said: "A master has already placed a deposit, please ask Xiao Jinbao to play and sing that day."

"It's also the winter solstice?" Huo Zhenye frowned. Even if it was the winter solstice to worship the ancestors, he would invite the theater troupe to sing a big play. How could he ask the girls in the hall to play the pipa.

"Isn't it just the day of the winter solstice?" Business was also slow on that day, which family's men didn't go back to worship their ancestors that day, and the other party spent a lot of money to buy small gold treasures.

Originally, Changsantangzi had rules, he was not a regular customer, and he didn't come out of the hall, but no matter how big the rules were, they were worth ten gold bars.That's ten gold bars, and it's enough to raise another little Jinbao.

When Bai Zhun heard it, his eyes sank.

Huo Zhenye simply asked, "Did that person call himself Bai?"

The other party smiled: "Yo, so the two masters still know each other." No wonder they all have the same hobbies, maybe it's rich people who are vindictive, they have been in this business for a long time, and there are all kinds of weird people.

Huo Zhenye hung up the phone, Huo asked: "It's Bai Yang? Why did he do this?" He even knew that Bai Zhun's master liked to listen to the Pingtan "The Legend of the White Snake".

These days, he put all his thoughts on the construction of the Town God's Temple. The newspapers repeatedly reported that the Green Gang gave great help, people from all walks of life were also mobilized, and the architectural drawings were prepared long ago.

Just wait for the auspicious day to start construction.

Bai Yang hid in the Japanese Concession, where the Japanese backed him up, but he offended the four sects, and the masters of the four sects would always make trouble for him.

Bai Zhun coughed muffledly, his energy was not getting better day by day, it would be best if he could not confront Bai Yang head-on.

Huo Zhenye brought him warm tea to moisten his throat, Bai Zhun took two sips and calmly said: "Don't worry about him." The same is true for burning a beauty playing the pipa to the master.

Huo Zhenye patted his back for him, anxious in his heart, but his face was very relaxed: "Then don't care about him, whether we want to celebrate foreigners' festival, Christmas is also very interesting, let's decorate the garden, get a cart puller How about the sledge in the yard?"

Bai Zhun looked disgusted, seeing Huo Zhenye's happy face, he nodded a little: "Okay."

"I also bought a piano today, and it will be delivered tomorrow. You don't know, I can play the piano, and I'll play it for you."

He was afraid that Bai Zhun would be discouraged, so he thought of ways to cheer him up.

Bai Zhun seemed to be annoyed, but as long as Huo Zhenye asked, he would not refuse: "Well played, I will reward you with an ocean."

"A piece? I play the piano for someone, so I have to ask for something else."

On January [-]st, the construction of the temple will be started, and it will not be a few days. If you add money to the craftsmen, you must let them build the main hall first, so that the city god can have a place to rest and enjoy the incense.

Axiu stood quietly behind the hall, and after listening to what they said, she turned and went into the room.

Early in the winter morning, the postman rode his bicycle through the long alley in Yuqingli, rang the bell and called, "Mrs. Wu registered letter."

After sending it around, there were still two last letters in the package, one was from the Wu family, and the other was addressed to the Bai family. Since he was in charge of this area, the Bai family had not confiscated any mail packages.

But no one has lived in the small building of Bai's house for a long time, and no one of these neighbors knows where they have moved.

The fire in Town God's Temple destroyed half of the house and blackened the other half of Yu Qingli's house. The Bai family was rich, so they naturally moved out.

Mrs. Wu received the letter, and the postman asked casually, "Mrs. Wu, do you know where Mr. Bai moved to?"

Mrs. Wu shook her head: "I don't know, this place has been vacated, and we will also move out next month. I will leave the address to you then."

The postman was going downstairs, but Xiaoyan stopped him with her schoolbag on her back: "I know where the Bai family has moved."

Axiu gave her an address and said that they could continue to communicate, but their contacts became less and less. Xiaoyan hadn't grown up yet, but Axiu suddenly grew up.

The postman rode his bike to the concession and knocked on the door of the Bai Mansion. Huo Zhenye opened the door and saw that the letter was addressed to Bai Zhun. He was a little surprised. When he saw the address, he put the letter in his pocket.

He gave the postman a stack of tips, and went upstairs with the letter to wake Bai Zhun up.

Bai Zhun didn't sleep well all night, he tossed and turned in Zhenye's arms, he was patted awake just after falling asleep, his eyes were still open: "What's wrong?"

"Someone from Lingguan Village delivered a letter." Huo Zhenye read the handwriting on the letter, "It's a man named Tan Sangu."

Bai Zhun raised his long eyelashes slightly, stared at the letter with intense eyes, scraped open the seal with a bamboo knife, took out the letter paper from inside, and read the contents of the letter after spreading out a few lines.

"What did you write?" Huo Zhenye reached out to get it, but Bai Zhun didn't stop him.

Tan Sangu's letter was vague, she just asked Bai Zhun to go back quickly, and she must go back to Lingguan Village, she didn't say anything else.

"Is this letter real or fake? Could it be a forgery?" Bai Yang even knew that Bai Zhun's master loved to listen to Pingtan, maybe he knew Tan Sangu, forged a letter and tricked Bai Zhun.

"Third Aunt is illiterate. This letter was written by a trustee. It is only natural that she cannot explain something clearly."

"you want to go?"

Bai Zhun nodded: "Go." He dreamed of Lingguan Village twice in a row, maybe it was Master reminding him something, and he wanted to go back and have a look.

"Where is Lingguan Village? Is there a road to get there?"

Bai Zhun didn't answer, he held the piece of paper and suddenly asked, "Does this piece of paper smell?"

Huo Zhenye was stunned, picked up the letter paper, put it on his nose, and sniffed it lightly. He could smell a very faint smell of blood coming out through the paper and ink.

"It smells like blood, but it's very mild, and there's another kind of smell."

"It's fear." The fear was conveyed from the dictator's heart and landed on the paper.

Lingguan Village is not far away, but it takes at least half a month for such a letter to be sent from Lingguan Village to Shanghai. If the unrest in the village continues, something may have happened by now.

"Pack up your things." Bai Zhun ordered the paper servant, and the paper servant took out two rattan boxes from the attic, which contained Bai Zhun's clothes and toiletries.

"Leave today?"

"Leave immediately." Bai Zhun's bamboo wheelchair rolled into the house, and put a stick of incense in front of the master's spiritual tablet, "I'll go back to Lingguan Village to have a look."

Cigarettes rose straight into the air, and then scattered in mid-air.

Huo Zhenye also packed his suitcases, and he also bought a lot of canned wine and meat, just like the time he went to Xiangshui, he filled the trunk of the car to the brim.

Bai Zhun got into the car, this time he didn't leave Axiu behind, he asked Axiu to go with him, stuffed the paper servant into the car, and instructed Huo Zhenye: "Drive out of the city, we will arrive in about a day."

In Lingguan Village, also called Lingcoffin Village, every household there makes a living by making coffins. Those who don’t make coffins make shrouds, make wreaths, and make paper bundles.

Bai Qi took two apprentices, one big and one small, and lived in Lingguan Village for a while, where every family makes a living from funerals, and it is the place where the dead are the least taboo.

Lingguan Village is located at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by verdant green hills and green water, it is an excellent Fengshui place, and the wood produced here is also suitable for making coffins.

After driving for a day, two paper servants carried them in where they couldn't get in. It was almost dark when they reached the outside of the village.

Huo Zhenye pushed Bai Zhun into the village, and stopped a young man who was leading a cow back to the village: "Where does Sangu Tan live?"

"Tan Sangu?" The young man glanced at them, his eyes lingering on Huo Zhenye's suit and Bai Zhun's bamboo wheelchair, "Sangu has been gone for more than half a year? What can you do with her?"

half a year?But this letter was mailed half a month ago.