Yaxiang Street

Ting Fang had nowhere to go.He doesn't know anything except work, he doesn't know how to make friends, he doesn't know how to get drunk with money, he has no songs to listen to, and no one to talk to.He asked the ambulance to drop him at the intersection of Yaxiang Street. It was dark but not cold.He stood under the longan tree beside the river, and the longan tree had already bloomed for a tree.It blooms and bears fruit, and its original intention is not to be eaten by humans, it is just to try to reproduce.

As long as living things are trying to reproduce, it is an instinct. He remembered a biology book saying that the instinct of reproduction can be higher than survival, and that is the source of life's survival.In the animal kingdom, many animals would rather give up their lives in order to reproduce, such as male praying mantises, or adult animals that die while guarding their young.

Who is in charge?Human consciousness can't interfere with it. When a baby is born, germ cells have already formed. Mitosis and meiosis are both natural existences. Humans only discovered this phenomenon at the end.

Even the master Chen Ze, who is doomed to be "widowed, lonely and disabled", is unwilling to become a lonely old man.

Tingfang smoked one cigarette after another.I don't know how long it has passed, he thinks it should be midnight, the last quarter moon rises in the middle of the night, and hangs desertedly on the treetops, this shape of the moon is only strange to him, who will stay in the second half of the night, in order to see such a waning moon?

The door of Bai Muxiang shop creaked open.

Ting Fang didn't look back.He heard someone's footsteps approaching, and he knew it was Chen Ze.But Chen Ze walks in a leisurely manner. Has he walked such an urgent road?

The footsteps stopped not far from him.Ting Fang still didn't look back, the cigarette in his hand had been burned out, the smell of the cigarette was bad, not at all comparable to agarwood.

"Doctor Wu?"

Ting Fang thought, how should he face Chen Ze?Can he hate him? "

But Chen Ze was not wrong, except for "a woman has a son", Chen Ze did nothing wrong.

Ting Fang was thinking about it until Chen Ze came to him and raised his pajama sleeve.

Why is he rolling up his sleeves?Why are you rubbing it on his face?Why is he looking at him like that?Not pity, not ridicule.He couldn't understand at all why Chen Ze showed such eyes.

That's not the expression a living god should have.Those are the eyes of suffering in the midst of the world of mortals.

Ting Fang didn't remember how he followed Chen Ze back to his small building that night, looked at Feng Sheng's sweet sleeping face, sat on the black lacquered bed painted with gold and carved patterns, and sat beside Chen Ze.Chen Ze's sleeves were soaked, and then Chen Ze hugged him tightly.Ting Fang tightly grasped Chen Ze's sleeves, the sleeves of the wet pajamas.

What do gods know?The gods understand your past and present lives, do the gods understand your sorrow, joy, anger and ignorance?But Chen Ze hugged him so tightly, as if he understood all his pains.

Ting Fang fell asleep.At three o'clock in the morning on the second day after losing his home, Wu Tingfang fell asleep with his pillow on the sleeve of a living fairy.

He dreamed of a past event.

On the first day of the first year when he was ten years old, his parents took him to offer incense on Mt.At that time, there was no expressway, and it took a long time to get to the foot of the mountain after taking a bumpy bus.

On the first day of the lunar new year, many people were busy grabbing the first incense, and it was full of people in front of the Chongxu Temple early in the morning.

At that time, he didn't know anything, he just thought this mountain was very interesting. When his parents went to offer incense, he went to the Taoist temple to play wild.There were a lot of people before the statues, so he ran left and right, and got into a courtyard where no one went.

The courtyard was very quiet, but there was a little Taoist priest being reprimanded by the old Taoist priest. The little Taoist priest looked younger than him and jumped with two buckets of water.

After the old Taoist priest left, Wu Tingfang quietly walked behind the young Taoist priest and watched it for a while.The little Taoist was very obedient, and the old Taoist told him not to move while carrying water, but he stopped moving and his legs began to tremble.

"The old lady can't see, you can put it down for a while." Wu Tingfang walked up to the little Taoist priest and said.

That little Taoist is very good-looking.

The little Taoist shook his head and did not speak to him.

"Why, she didn't see it anyway." Wu Tingfang was unhappy, he felt that he had a good idea, but was rejected.He reached out to grab the little Taoist's bucket.

"If you're discovered, you won't have dinner." The little Taoist's face flushed red as he argued with Wu Tingfang.

Wu Tingfang let go of his hand and said, "Then shall I help you choose for a while?"

This little Taoist is really good-looking.

The little Taoist looked at him strangely and said, "Isn't that the same?"

Wu Tingfang circled around him. He wanted to play with the little Taoist priest for a while, but the little Taoist priest would be punished. He had no choice but to squat on the ground, look up at the little Taoist priest, and ask, "Do you live here?"

"Um."

"Why do you live here?"

"Because I have no parents."

"Oh! Where are your parents?"

"do not know."

"Why is your hair like this?" Wu Tingfang asked, pointing to the little Taoist's bun.

"Everyone is like that."

The little Taoist is beautiful, but it is very boring to talk to.

"Are you a girl?"

The little Taoist opened his eyes and looked at Wu Tingfang, his face slowly turned red, and he stammered: "I, how could I be a girl? I am a boy!"

"But you tied your hair." Wu Tingfang was a little disappointed, and then he said, "Isn't that an old man just now?"

But the little Taoist hurriedly dropped the bucket and covered his mouth: "Shh! If Master hears you, you will be beaten to death with a bamboo broom!"

The little Taoist priest's hands were covered with calluses, which were so rough that Wu Tingfang's mouth would ache.

Fortunately, the old Taoist priest didn't come, and the young Taoist priest wanted to pick up the two buckets of water again. Tingfang had a good idea, and he kicked the two buckets of water over. The little Taoist priest widened his eyes again, and Tingfang said triumphantly: " It's much lighter that way."

Tears welled up in the little Taoist's eyes, and he cried, "I'm sure I won't have anything to eat tonight."

"You still said that you are not a girl, and you cried immediately." Wu Tingfang was a little at a loss, so he had to preemptively strike.

The little Taoist only cried once, then wiped away his tears.

Ting Fang looked at his face, still doubting his gender.

Ten-year-old children understand many things, including boys marrying girls, including which girls are beautiful and which are not.Wu Tingfang was very disappointed that this little Taoist priest was a boy, but he couldn't explain why he was disappointed.He feels like he wishes he was a girl.

"If you are a girl, I will make you my wife from now on."

The little Taoist asked: "What is a wife?"

"It's the mother. Well, it's the man's wife."

The little Taoist priest looks seven or eight years old, but he doesn't know what a wife is, which is really strange.Ting Fang, who couldn't explain clearly, became angry.

"Just sleeping in the same bed every night."

"But I sleep in the same bed with my brothers and sisters every night."

Ting Fang became more and more unhappy: "That's not allowed."

"Why? There's not enough bed to sleep in. Otherwise, we need to make a bed on the floor."

"In short, only husband and wife can sleep in the same bed."

"Oh."

"What's your name?"

"My master calls me Faxian. But my brother secretly told me that my name is Chen Ze."

"Then what do I call you?"

"You call me Chen Ze." The little Taoist looked around nervously, as if afraid of his master appearing.

"My name is Wu Tingfang."

"You write it to me."

"You are only in the first grade, right? How can you understand?" Wu Tingfang, a third grader, looked down upon him.

"I didn't go to school, my brother taught me to write."

Ngo Dinh Fong wrote his name on the ground with a branch: "Ngo Tinh Fong".Crooked.

The little Taoist also squatted on the ground and wrote his name: "Chen Ze".His handwriting is so beautiful.

The little Taoist asked him again: "Where do you live?"

"I live at No. [-], Lane [-], Yaxiangxifang, Yacun, Zhongshui Town, Dongxiang." Wu Tingfang wrote down the address again with a tree branch.He had just seen this address on the form handed in to the teacher, and he was very proud of being able to write it down.

"is it far?"

"It's very far away, and it takes a long, long time to drive."

The little Taoist seemed a little melancholy.

Tingfang couldn't remember exactly what they were playing that afternoon.I just remember that before Ting Fang left, the little Taoist asked him: "If I am a boy, can I be your wife?"

"Of course not!" Wu Tingfang replied in this way.

The little Taoist seemed to be crying again.

Wu Tingfang wanted to pretend he didn't see it, but he looked so pitiful.So Wu Tingfang had no choice but to say: "Maybe it is possible, I will go back and ask my father."

"good."

Tingfang walked out of the small courtyard. He was a little worried that the little Taoist priest would be punished again, so he secretly turned back and took a look. He saw the little Taoist priest fetch two buckets full of water and carried it on his shoulders. Mom took it away with her ears.

When Wu Tingfang woke up, Chen Ze's sleeve was still in front of his eyes.Wu Tingfang thought of the name written by the little Taoist priest in his dream, and suddenly became startled.Chen Ze slept on the side, and Feng Sheng slept in the innermost, and they didn't wake up.

He remembered this incident, but he just didn't quite remember the name and appearance of the little Taoist priest.After that, he never saw that little Taoist priest again, because his family never went to Qima Mountain to worship the gods again.In the first few years during the Chinese New Year, he even quarreled about going to Moji Mountain, but no one paid any attention to him, and the matter was forgotten afterward.Wu Tingfang remembered that he did ask his father: "Can a boy be a wife?" His father only said two words: No.

Is that Taoist really called Chen Ze?

Ting Fang thought this dream was ridiculous, eight parts remembered, two parts made up, and Chen Ze's name was included in the dream.

Where is Chen Ze a Taoist priest?According to Tinghua, he should have come to join his uncle after his parents died in his teens.

Are teens who lose their parents considered "orphans"?Ting Fang didn't think deeply.

When Tingfang woke up, Chen Ze opened his eyes, and Tingfang made a gesture of "I'm leaving" to him.Chen Ze didn't respond to him, but just sat up, looked at Feng Sheng who was still asleep, and then followed Ting Fang out of the room door, closing the door gently.

"Go to work?" Chen Ze looked at the wall clock, it was 07:30.

"Um."

Chen Ze didn't say much, Ting Fang went down the stairs, looked up, Chen Ze was still standing at the stairs. It was already very bright at 07:30, and the sunlight slanted in from the southeast window, just shining on his back, backlighting, and the expression on his face could not be seen clearly.

Do you think there is anyone in this world you can cry to?

Men can't cry, can adult men cry to their parents?Is it okay to cry to your siblings?Can I cry to my wife?Is it okay to cry to a child?

So most men don't cry, they just get angry, abusive, drunk or even hurt.

Ting Fang's mother said that he loved to cry when he was a child.He can cry about anything, tears come when he says so.The neighbor's children stopped playing with him, he couldn't eat a bite of tofu flower, and someone didn't lend him toys—even when his little shoes neatly placed by the door were kicked crookedly by his father, he could cry for hours until he was taken away by someone else. The patient father beat me hard.

But since Ting Fang could remember, he felt that he had never cried.When he broke up with his girlfriend whom he had talked with for five years in college, he didn't cry.Suffering is uncomfortable, but there is always a way to vent it. At that time, I can play basketball and practice hard. After a long time, it will be fine.He broke his right leg once, and it hurt so badly that tears still couldn't come out.

He thought, it was nothing more than the pain was not thorough enough, but it didn't reach the heart.

He also thought, what on earth has he been doing every day for more than ten years to make himself into what he is now?