Rebirth Night Talk

Sesame candy...stuffed sesame candy...hemp candy with rose filling..."

"Tofu... oh...tofu..."

"Mung bean kernels (sprouts)..."

Wang Xi opened his eyes, stretched out his arms from under the quilt to put them on the pillow, and closed his eyes again.Hearing the familiar yelling outside the wall, he knew that he had gone home.This is not the old home, but this is home.He can sleep as long as he wants, as long as he wants, and stay as long as he wants.He smelled the familiar smell unique to Wanlin City in the air, and even imagined that maybe his father would push open the door, enter the room and say to him: "Hey, brat, you still know how to come back, suffer, suffer... ...Papa is going to buy you canned oranges."

He quickly laughed again, if Dad was here, what kind of canned oranges would he buy there, he would have chased him all over the street with a stick and beat him up.However, it's fine even if you get beaten.

The yard was very quiet, and the sound of chess pieces falling on the wooden board followed the length of thinking, and fell crisply.No one spoke, someone was waiting for him to wake up.

Just lying there motionless, lingering, lingering until the bladder can't take it anymore, and then sat up from the bed.He lifted off a brocade quilt covered with Wanlin silk.That's right, it's brocade quilt.Chang Yu and Zhao Xuejun are the kind of people who live in the past. They live in a small yard, the house is an antique old-style house, and the railings are antique old-style railings.The furniture in this house, the Arhat bed for sleeping, the quilts and mattresses, the small pendants on the wall, and the large paintings.It's all a thing of the past.If you don't know the details, you will be in a daze for a long time if you come in suddenly. The whole era here is stopped in the past.Sometimes, under the square sky in the courtyard, the sunlight that leaks in seems like a bygone time.

After getting out of bed, Wang Xi watched as he stepped on his black corduroy cloth shoes.Don't ask, change Aunt Xia's craftsmanship.Everyone in the family has several pairs of these shoes.In the past, it was given to him for nothing, but he didn't want it even if he died, so Aunt Gaixia left it for him.Hey, I still have it.

A pile of purchased laundry was piled high on a flat chair beyond the bed.Underpants, vests, biceps, and round necks.There are several stacks of clothes neatly placed, all newly bought.It is wide open to the tall antique cabinets for clothes and chairs.It probably means asking Wang Xi to sort it out by himself.He tidied it up by himself, so it would be easy to find it next time.

Wang Xi stretched out his hand, touched his shaved head, and then looked at himself.Now I am as clean as a white pig, yesterday, no!Maybe it was the day before yesterday that he used a large boiler of water to wash himself. Zhao Xuejun took a dry towel to help him keep rubbing and rubbing until his skin turned red and he was about to fall asleep comfortably.Those hairs really couldn't be combed, there was no way, Zhao Xuejun borrowed a hair clipper and helped him cut a big bald head.

After getting dressed and pulling on the shoes (the shoes are too small), Wang Xi walked out of the inner room, walked around an antique screen inlaid with shell paintings, and came to the outer room, which was Zhao Xuejun's small study.It's not clean here, everything is thrown away at will, books, Rubik's cube, massage hammer, half-sleeve shirts are hung on cap bottles.There was a plate of rhubarb apricots on the table, the apricots were about the size of a small baby's fist, and a few apricots rolled out of the white porcelain plate, lining the old dark red square table which was playful but elegant.

Wang Xi pushed open the wooden door carved with lotus flowers, and looked at the two elders sitting in the middle of the courtyard and playing chess with their heads bowed.They didn't look at him, they still concentrated on looking at the chess pieces.Wang Xi didn't come forward to say hello either. He went to the toilet, took a long pee, washed his hands, and went straight to the kitchen.The fire in the kitchen was not covered, and it was hot and stuffy.He walked to the steamer and opened the steamer, and there were four flowering steamed buns beside a large bowl of stewed vegetables that had been kept hot.

Picking up the stewed vegetables and skewering the steamed buns with chopsticks, Wang Xi came to the yard, sat on the small bench next to the chessboard, and began to feast.

Lao Chang touched the chess piece for a while, then threw the pawn aside, stood up, went into the kitchen, brought Wang Xi another bowl of millet soup, and put it beside him: "Have a drink, get out of the fire."

"I called your mother." Zhao Jianguo took out a tin box that originally contained snacks and began to collect the chess pieces.

"Oh." Wang Xi continued to eat.

"You came out early, we didn't know, and you didn't notify." Lao Chang's voice was slightly ups and downs, and he quickly pressed it again.

"Come here?" Zhao Jianguo asked.

"Yeah." Wang Xi picked up the rice soup and drank it in a few sips. After drinking, he took an empty bowl and went to the kitchen to fill another bowl. He had slept for two days and had no appetite.On the contrary, the freshly brewed millet was really fragrant and nourishing, and he drank four bowls in a row.Comfortable pores are opened.

"You are stupid, go find a place there, send a telegram, and we will send money immediately. Socialist countries, can you give you relief. You just walked back from Guangzhou for two months? Hey, I said You, I said you... Forget it, your aunt, I have stewed meat for you, and I will bring it to you tonight."

"Hey, stay here, Xuejun said, if you share a house with him, I won't clean it up for you. From now on, that will be yours, and it will be yours from now on... I put the money under your shirt, if you want to buy it Buy everything by yourself, the east room has everything, you pick out the furniture yourself. Aunt Gaixia will make quilts, mattresses and so on for you.” Lao Chang pointed to the second floor of the east room, stood up, and entered inside.After a while, the sound of storytelling on the radio spread to the yard.

"Uncle." Wang Xi put away the bowl, and stopped Zhao Jianguo who was about to push the cart away: "Where's Junjun?"

"Xiaoli Brick Factory in the suburbs! It's just east of the former city construction company. Your Chang Bo bought a new place in the suburbs and wants to hide in the mountains. This is not... don't want good new bricks, you can't live in the city! Nervous He insisted on burning old-style bricks, and Junjun was watching over there. The flamboyant him, isn't he rich?...the flamboyant ones...Wanlin City can't put it down...a lot of bricks and greens have been ordered Wa, this family is becoming more and more weird. They don’t live in the city, they insist on living in the suburbs. They don’t live in a good building, they insist on building a temple... When I see my son in the future, should I just burn incense at home? The two of them who can attract...the flamboyant..."

Zhao Jianguo rode away on his bike. He didn't go to work these days.All these big and small things in this family were very annoying, so he simply didn't go to the unit's house to stay.On the way home, Zhao Jianguo deliberately made a detour and went to the side of the road from Wanlin to Jiangguan, which was already open to traffic. He lit two cigarettes, put one on the ground for Wang Lu, and smoked the other slowly by himself.

"The baby is back, has grown taller, and has something on his mind. What's the matter, Wang Lu, your baby is fine, what's the matter, I lost it after two months of walking... Hey, my son is growing up, it's all grown up. That guy Xuewen , I never wanted to come back...I kept saying something...Forget it...you want to take this thing back, kid, after you let it out? Don't worry, Lao Chang and I will watch it, and you won't lose it..." He babbled As I watched, I couldn't help but burst into tears.

Wang Xi packed himself up, rode the family car and went out. He went around the familiar city where he grew up, and went to the Xiaoli Brick Factory in the suburbs.

Xiaoli Brick Factory has received a big order, and the museum's boss has ordered a lot of blue bricks, blue tiles, carved bricks, and carved walls.The master is an old craftsman invited from the south, so during this period of time, many brick factory masters from the countryside have come here to learn skills.

Zhao Xuejun sat on the soil slope not far from the brick kiln, looked at the hole over there, watched the workers talking and laughing, pushing the wheelbarrow, pushing the embryos into the brick kiln one by one.He has been doing this for a whole morning with his head in a mess. In the past two days, he watched Wang Xi cry many times in his dream, and he couldn't coax him.

Wang Xi put the car away and sat beside Zhao Xuejun.Looking at the distance, today's sky is sunny and clear, with blue spots covering the top.They looked at the curve of the city in the distance and heard dogs barking in nearby villages.Looking intently into the distance, at the end of the stream, children are fishing for frog eggs, catching dragonflies, and catching butterflies.On the other side of the mountain, Laoye Mountain is green, and the tall bronze statue of Emperor Yan can be seen from tens of miles away.

Zhao Xuejun ignored Wang Xi, he was sitting on the grass with a few stalks of dogtail grass, hand-made animals and stood in line.Wang Xi looked at the distance for a while, then fell down on the grass with his head up: "I've been to many places, but nothing is as good as here."

"What did you see?" Zhao Xuejun put the knitted rabbit aside.

"A lot of people. They work, play, meet friends, and go to work. At night, they go home by bicycle." Wang Xi replied.

"You want to come back?" Zhao Xuejun asked.

"No, I'll live. I'll go out when I've lived enough. Then I'll come back when I die. I want to be buried here."

"The price of the cemetery will increase in the future. If you want to have a larger place to lie down, you'd better buy the cemetery earlier, which can save you a lot of money."

"So you and Chang Bo bought a place early?"

"Well, the city will be rebuilt sooner or later, and the place we live in will be bought sooner or later. Godfather doesn't like crowds, so I said, go to the foot of Laoye Mountain, there is a lot of open space over there, by the way, the place we bought Well, it’s the source of the stream we used to catch fish in. Halfway up the mountain, standing on a high slope, you can watch the city grow and change day by day...just like you..."

Wang Xi had a headache, and felt that Zhao Xuejun was living like a little old man more and more. His tone was very similar to Chang Yu's, and his eyes were also similar, with a trace of scrutiny of life and observation of the world.He sat up and looked at his side.The profile of young Zhao Xuejun gazing at the distance of the city is very beautiful, and Wang Xi can't write long words to describe it.He felt that his hair was very black, his nose was straight, and the blackness in his eyes could shut the whole world in.Very deep, very hairy.

"This...how long will this burn?" Wang Xi was a little embarrassed, so he could only talk about those green bricks.

"It will take a long time. The floor is paved with floor bricks, the flower wall is made of flower wall bricks, the courtyard wall is made of courtyard wall bricks, and the bricks of the goldfish pond. There are also tiles, which are used differently in each place, godfather Looking at the pictures of ancient buildings, I think it's also very interesting... Think about it, if we move there in the future, will there be any share, Wanlin Laoye Mountain, ten miles east of the city, sprawling hills, deep valleys, and Futu Jingshe is called Zhanghe River in the west and Yanju in the east. It is surrounded by mountains and ravines, hidden by pine trees, it is desolate and unremarkable, and there are no traces of cars and horses... How comfortable it is to live in such a place." (Note)

"Hey, hey...Junjun, what are you talking about!" Wang Xi was so depressed that he stood up, stretched out his hand and patted Zhao Xuejun on the head vigorously.

He slapped Wang Xi's hand away and threw away the newly made puppy. Zhao Xuejun stood up and stared at Wang Xi until Wang Xi asked in horror, "What are you doing? Don't look at me like that. .”

Zhao Xuejun gritted his teeth: "I want to hit you, what should I do?"

Wang Xi smiled indifferently: "Then you fight."

"I can't reach it!" Zhao Xuejun looked angrily!He didn't grow up this year.

"A block of bricks." Wang Xile's suggestion, he didn't think Zhao Xuejun would hit him.

Zhao Xuejun really turned his head and ran downhill. After a while, he brought a large wall brick, threw it on the ground and stood on it, staring at Wang Xi.Wang Xi walked in front of him, closed his eyes resignedly, neither resisted nor moved, looking pitiful.

A big slap, mixed with the sound of the wind, hit Wang Xi's face hotly with a "huh".

"Snapped!"

Wang Xi was stunned, covered his face, took a step back, and pointed at Zhao Xuejun, a little annoyed: "Damn! Really hit!"

"Nonsense, what do you think..." Zhao Xuejun was angry.

Wang Xi was so depressed that he was about to die, he covered his face and turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Wang Xi stopped with his back turned to him.

"Come here, I haven't finished beating yet." Zhao Xuejun lowered the brick, raised his hand and tried to hit it twice. He felt that it was inconvenient to hit this direction of strength, and it probably didn't hurt. He turned over depressed and put on the brick again. .He hooked his hand: "Come here."

Wang Xi took a long breath, turned around and walked in front of him, standing still with a hint of pleading in his tone: "Just one moment, just one moment, let me tell you, just one moment..."

"Okay!" Zhao Xuejun nodded.

Wang Xi was staring at it with his eyes open, but he saw that Zhao Xuejun swung his forearm vigorously to draw circles, and he closed it again.

The dragonfly flew across the grass all the time, a few loud and rapid applause, startled the dragonfly into a semicircle, and flew away high.

"Damn! Talking doesn't count!" Wang Xi was annoyed, he pushed Zhao Xuejun, Zhao Xuejun sat down on the ground, immediately jumped up and scratched his face, cursing at the same time.

"You are so capable, are you a fool, dare to smuggle, why didn't you be shot dead by the armed police... You didn't see your mother like that, she was almost dead, dead! Your mother didn't want to live anymore You are really capable, dare to smuggle..."

Wang Xi didn't move, and slowly stood up straight for Zhao Xuejun to beat.Zhao Xuejun had been holding his breath for almost two years, and his heart was full of pus. If he didn't beat him up today, he would suffocate himself to death.This loss is absolutely unacceptable.

"I told you, you have to live a good life, look at your bear, is it so difficult to make a phone call to ask for help? I would rather go to prison than you don't ask for help, how great and noble, do I want to compose a poem Praise you?! Ah?!"

"No, I can't understand you even if you wrote it."

In the evening, Chang Yu cooked a table of dishes and moved the table to the yard.Zhao Jianguo took Wang Xi to call Su Zhen in Guangzhou at his home, and then brought him back. During this journey, Zhao Jianguo was furious.

Wang Xi told his mother on the phone that he didn't want to go to school, and he wouldn't be able to get in if he did.In the past two years, Wang Xi has officially entered the society. He has learned to think like an adult. It's not that he doesn't want to enjoy the life of a teenager before returning to school.Anyone can go back, but he can't.He has to make good plans for himself and his family.No matter how nice the others are, they belong to someone else's family. Even if it is Uncle Zhao, Uncle Chang is willing to be his own son and take care of him for the rest of his life, but he can't, his father Wang Lu won't allow it.

Gao Juzi and Zhao Xuebing looked at Wang Xi with a bruised nose and swollen face, puzzled?Wang Xi turned around and glared at Zhao Xuejun.Zhao Xuejun turned around and entered the kitchen calmly.

"Junjun?" Gao Juzi was very surprised.In the past few years, Zhao Xuejun has been honest and rarely shows off his power. The whole family always thinks that he fought for his second brother was a dream and a fake.

Lao Chang put down the wine bottle, trotted over, stretched out his hand and lifted Wang Xi's chin to look up and down: "Can you eat? Let's have soup." Wang Xi shook his head: "Yes." Lao Chang nodded, turned to pour the wine, He leaned over and muttered in a low voice: "It's time to fight, it's a good fight."

Tangerine touched Wang Xi's head, thinking of those at her sister's house, and cried again.Zhao Jianguo tried a few words of persuasion, but seeing that it was useless, he ignored her.

"Eat chicken legs." Zhao Xuebing put a chicken leg into Wang Xi's bowl and stared at him.Wang Xi smiled at him: "What do you see me doing?"

"It's nothing, you eat." Zhao Xuebing really wanted to express some emotion in his inner world, but he was a clever-mouthed mynah outside, but he was the dumbest mouthed at home.It was probably because Zhao Xuejun made him lose confidence.

Zhao Xuejun was in the kitchen, helping Aunt Gaixia with work. From time to time, he looked up at Wang Xi who was surrounded by his family in the yard.He lowered his head and just muttered about eating.Occasionally, when the forgetful grandma thought of something, she would pick up her Huangshan tourism commemorative walking stick and hit him, and then curse: "Damn it, don't live up to it!" Wang Xi didn't dare to resist, and moved his butt quietly.

As night fell, Lao Chang turned on the courtyard lights and greeted everyone to eat.At the beginning, everyone was very dull. After eating for a while, they often put down their chopsticks uncontrollably: "You don't go to school, what are you going to do in the future? Cheng Yaojin knows how to do tricks, what do you know? You want money If you have no money, you need knowledge but no knowledge, tell me what you can do?"

Wang Xi put down his chopsticks, chewed a few times and swallowed the food, and replied seriously: "I want to work first, I have saved enough money, and set up a factory in my hometown. There are many factories over there, but they are all Boss from outside, I want to set up a factory for processing electronic small parts. I know, I can’t do anything, and I will make everyone worry about it, uncle...I respect you.” Wang Xi picked up the wine glass and toasted Lao Chang.Lao Chang froze for a moment, but drank it anyway.

"Ask me to try, I just can't do it, can you not call me back? I still have a home." Wang Xi wanted to open his mouth wide to smile confidently, but the pain at the corner of his mouth suppressed his smile go back.

"Oh, I'm not your father after all. I can't hit you, force you, watch you, coax you to go to school. You child... hey..." Zhao Jianguo took a sip of his wine.

That night, Wang Xi was sleepless all night. With his eyes closed, he could hear Zhao Xuejun writhing over there.He opened his eyes, caught the moonlight, and saw Zhao Xuejun, holding something like a stack of ancient receipts, caressing him all night, making his hair stand on end.