Dreaming back to the 90s to help my dad catch a rival in love

tick, tick, tick

In the main room, the second hand of the "Three Five" old-fashioned clock beats one by one, making a regular mechanical swing sound.

On the right side of the clock is a white porcelain statue of Dripping Water Avalokitesvara. In the large blue and white incense burner in front of the statue, half-burned incense sticks exude a faint sandalwood fragrance.Gray smoke curled up, drifting from the first floor along the stairs to the second floor and the small attic.

When the hour came, the clock chimed loudly, waking up Ning Xiaobei who was sleeping in the attic.

He opened his eyes in a daze, unable to distinguish the situation for a while.

The windows of the room were covered by thick curtains, and only the gaps between the two curtains were sprinkled with golden light, like golden threads, so that the room would not be completely invisible.

What is this place?

Ning Xiaobei was so frightened that he jumped up from the bed, but unexpectedly, his head hit the top of the triangular beam of the attic, making a "boom".He was in so much pain that his eyes were filled with stars, and he lay down on the bed directly, and the wire camp bed made a "creak" sound.

"Xiao Bei, what are you doing (what)? Come down when you wake up, Nong's father has already made breakfast, come down and eat."

In the main room on the first floor, the old lady of the Ning family who was chanting sutras heard the noise upstairs, glanced towards the stairs with half-opened eyes, and did not stop counting the prayer beads in her hands.

this sound?

Ning Xiaobei touched the fake swollen bump on his head, with an expression of disbelief—this Shanghai dialect with Su Bai, who is it not his grandma?

No, hasn't grandma passed away for more than 20 years?

He sniffed, and a smell of damp wood, unique to old houses in the south of the Yangtze River, rushed into his nostrils.

Ning Xiaobei let go of his head, and according to the remaining memory, he touched the wall with his right hand and felt a piece of uneven wall.His hand moved slightly to the right, and sure enough, he touched a rope.

After pulling down the rope, a small lamp lit up on the left side of the bed, and the dim yellow light clearly illuminated the small attic of less than five square meters.

He saw the wire camp bed sleeping under him, the "national sheets" printed with lilies on the bed, the small log desk beside the bed and the tiger skylight blocked by curtains in front of the desk, and his expression changed drastically.

This is my home, but it's not a newly bought apartment building a few years ago, but an old house from my childhood - this is my small attic.

"Why do you turn on the lights in broad daylight? Nong Ah is a small Kai (rich boy) in the old society? Hurry up and get dressed and come down to eat. You're not a young master, and you have to ask for breakfast three times. "

Although old lady Ning was old, she was still able to see and hear. She heard the sound of pulling the rope to switch the lights upstairs, and said displeasedly.

"Understood. Come down immediately."

As Ning Xiaobei said, he climbed off the bed with his bare feet.The old floor was crooked, and when one stepped on it, the floor "creaked" and screamed.

Picking up the folded clothes from the back of the chair and putting them on her body, Ning Xiaobei took two unsteady steps.Suddenly remembering that the light hadn't been turned off, I hurriedly turned around and turned off the light, and the room was plunged into darkness again.

The attic is very small, only a bed, a chair and a desk are placed, and the desk is tightly next to the dormer window.Ning Xiaobei's belly was pressed against the edge of the desk, and he stretched out his hand hard, pulling aside the curtain in front of the small window.

In an instant, the morning sun shone unscrupulously into this small attic, as if a new world had opened up.

A white pigeon flapped its wings and drew a graceful curve from the glass window and flew past him.Ning Xiaobei was taken aback, and leaned back slightly.

Then there was only a sound of "coo coo coo", and seven or eight pigeons flew past the window, followed the leading white dove and swooped down collectively, and flew to the dovecote on the roof not far away.

A few white feathers fell, blown into the window of the attic by the summer morning wind, and landed in front of Ning Xiaobei.

Ning Xiaobei picked up a feather, and stared blankly at the magnificent scene in front of him—everywhere he could see, there were earth-red roofs all over his eyes, stretching into one piece, like a huge carpet.Under the red roof is the gray wall, and the black gate can be vaguely seen. Hundreds of Shikumen buildings are laid out, spreading all the way to the distant Huangpu River.

The water on the river is rippling, and the reflected scales and waves are clearly visible even a hundred meters away. "Woooo...", several ships honked their whistles together, and then dragged their huge bodies across the river bay and headed south.

In the bell tower of the customs building, the steady bell playing the melody of "Dongfanghong" can be heard faintly, which is in harmony with the chime of the clock in the main room downstairs.

"This is... a dream."

Ning Xiaobei's hand holding the pigeon's feather trembled slightly, unable to believe that the scene in front of him was real.

As far as I can remember, the old house I live in has been demolished long ago.

Not only that, under the bulldozers of urban construction, Shanghai has not seen such a large number of old Shikumen houses for many years.

In the city center, except for "Xintiandi" on South Huangpi Road, the old buildings in Hetianzifang in Yuyangli have been completely preserved, and other places have long been demolished to the point where there are not even tiles left.

"It must be a dream, I am dreaming."

Ning Xiaobei patted his cheek.

That's right, isn't there a saying that goes, "Think by day, dream by night"?

It must be that he has been sorting out his father's belongings recently, so he dreamed about his childhood.

Ning Xiaobei felt pain when he thought of this.

His father, Ning Jianguo, fell down suddenly due to a sudden myocardial infarction when he was shopping alone at the vegetable market last week and was sent to the hospital.By the time he took leave from the company and rushed to the emergency room of the hospital, the white cloth had already covered his father's emaciated body.

Everything happened so suddenly that he didn't even see him for the last time, let alone have a last word with his father.

Ning Xiaobei sniffed sadly.

Could it be that his father entrusted him with a dream, wanting to put all the last words he wanted to say to him clearly in the dream?

He lowered his head and saw the notebook open on the desk. The pencil writing on it was immature and neat. Ning Xiaobei recognized it as his own at a glance.

When he was a child, he always wrote very hard, so every time he finished writing a composition, he felt his hands were sore.Dad always said that he is called "power through the back of the paper", but in grandma's mouth, he has a "deep hatred" with pencils. If he makes a mistake, he will use more erasers than others.

July 1996, 8, sunny

The top of the diary records the time, which should be yesterday.

In other words, what I dreamed about happened during the summer vacation of the fourth grade of elementary school.

"Xiaobei, if you don't come down, you won't eat anymore!"

Grandma's angry shouts and her crutches hitting the railing of the stairs came from downstairs. Ning Xiaobei hurriedly stuffed her feathers into the diary, closed it, put on her shoes, and ran downstairs.

Whether in a dream or not, his grandma is the person he fears the most in his life.Respecting her, even fearing her, has become a habit engraved in Ning Xiaobei's bones.

Running down the stairs quickly, the old lady in a light blue short blouse was already standing at the door of the main room. She was about to go out and looked at Ning Xiaobei who was still in shock, and frowned again.

"It's not easy to go downstairs. Is it a hozen? Why do you want to jump down? If you fall down, what should I do as a 60-year-old old woman? Do I have to ask my neighbors to go to the factory to call my father back?" come?"

She pointed at Ning Xiaobei with the yellow bamboo cane in her hand and said.

Little did they know that although Ning Xiaobei stared straight at him, she actually didn't listen to a single word of her words - firstly, facing this grandma who was always critical, Ning Xiaobei had learned to "a The skill of "one ear in, one ear out", and the second reason is that at this time Ning Xiaobei is only greedily looking at this "long-lost" old man, and has no control over what she is talking about.

Sure enough, it was grandma, and she was exactly the same as the one in memory.

Ning Xiaobei looked at her excitedly.

The old lady of the Ning family has always been the most particular. She was originally from Suzhou and Wujiang. Before liberation, she followed her parents to Shanghai to discuss life.The Shanghai dialect she speaks has a thick and inseparable Nunuo Suzhou dialect, so she is called "Suzhou old lady" by the people in the alley.

Shanghai is a land of mixed places. In the alley where Guangning’s family is located, there are old immigrants from various provinces such as “Shaoxing Granny”, “Ningbo Granny”, “Shandong Uncle” and “Jiangxi Old Cousin”.

They are either themselves or their ancestors who left their hometowns and came here to take root. Although everyone speaks Shanghai dialect, occasionally there will still be two words of hometown dialect between the lines, revealing their native place.

In my memory, my grandmother "Suzhou Granny" is the most well-dressed old lady in the whole alley.It's not that she dresses in a foreign style, but that as long as she gets out of bed, she will always wear "outsider" clothes, which are called "green mountains and green waters" in Shanghai dialect, and she has temperament and spirit.

It is definitely not like some people who came out of the "Xiazhijiao" (slums) and wear pajamas everywhere they go.Even going to Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road, I am ashamed to go shopping in pajamas and pajamas.

Because it is still summer, grandma usually wears a light blue or dark blue Gebu cotton blouse on her upper body, navy blue silk trousers underneath, and black cloth shoes.Now it's just gray hair standing up neatly, and a tight bun is tied behind the head, which is inserted with a mahogany hairpin.

A white handkerchief was pinned to the slanted front of the chest, and two fragrant white orchids were tied on the cloth buttons, with water droplets on the petals, so delicate and ready to drip.

Ning Xiaobei remembered that his grandma would always wear gardenias or white orchids in summer.

The old flower seller with a flower basket at the entrance of the alley has known her for many years. Every morning, she would wrap the freshly picked flowers with dew on the calendar paper torn off the day before, and place them on the outside wall of Ning's house. On the bright milk crate.

Until the year before the demolition of the old house, the flower seller passed away, and no one gave her flowers anymore. This old business of nearly 40 years had to stop.

"Good lady!"

The old lady was still rambling on and on, suddenly Ning Xiaobei yelled and stepped forward to hug her.

"Good woman" is what Suzhou people call grandma.

The way Shanghainese call grandma varies according to their ancestral origins. In addition to "haopo", there are also "ennai", "qinniang", "empress" and so on.

When the Ning family arrived at Ning Xiaobei's place, they could no longer speak a word of Suzhou dialect, but they still called grandma "good woman".

"Good girl, I miss you all the time."

Ning Xiaobei, who hadn't entered the fifth grade, was not as tall as Mrs. Ning, and even stood on tiptoe when hugging the old lady.He put his arms around the old lady's thin shoulders, smelled the elegant smell of Yangzhou rose hair oil in her hair, and closed his eyes excitedly.

"Little ghost, what are you doing? You're frightened by ghosts and ghosts early in the morning."

Mrs. Ning was taken aback by him, and shyly pushed away her grandson's warm embrace.

She glared at him twice, and after seeing Ning Xiaobei's flushed eye sockets, the hand that was originally rejecting hesitated for a moment, and touched Ning Xiaobei's forehead.

"I don't have a fever..."

"Good girl, I'm fine, I just see Nong happy."

Ning Xiaobei smiled and shook his head.

Isn't it joy? In my memory, my grandma passed away a year before the demolition.

He remembered that it happened to be December 1999.The whole world is welcoming the coming millennium, and their Ning family is having a funeral.

Maybe it was because he hadn't been close to his grandma since he was a child, Ning Xiaobei once wondered if he had completely forgotten what his grandma looked like.

That is to say, after seeing the adoption certificate, I realized that there was a reason why grandma didn't like me.It turned out that she had no blood relationship with him at all, he was a child brought in by his father.

It's just that seeing each other now, all the fears of the past have turned into joy, even though it was in a dream, it still moved him endlessly.

"I, I went to Wu's mother's house to play mahjong... Don't forget to wash the rice."

Old Madam Ning felt a little creepy when she saw him crying and laughing at the same time.

When Xiaobei was still Mao Maotou (baby), he didn't hug him very much, let alone when he grew up.Suddenly being hugged by this little red guy, the old woman felt that she really had goosebumps all over her body.

She walked to the door on crutches.After thinking about it, I turned around and asked worriedly, "Isn't Lennon really feeling sick?"

Ning Xiaobei shook his head like a rattle, and shouted at Granny Ning's back: "Good girl, win more money!"

Mrs. Ning had already stepped out of the threshold with one foot, but when she heard this sentence, she felt a "thump" in her heart.

"Could it be that the old man met the red man?"

She looked back at her grandson who was smiling like a fool, and asked in a low voice.

The author has something to say:

Xiaokai, a Shanghai dialect, refers to a young man from a wealthy Shanghai family who has no skills in the old society.You must be proficient in eating, drinking and playing and at least one foreign language, otherwise you can't be regarded as Xiaokai, at most you can be regarded as a playboy.Small openings also have thresholds.

Xiazhijiao, a Shanghai dialect, specifically refers to other districts and counties in Shanghai except Huangpu, Luwan District (Shangzhijiao) and other prime locations in the city center.Before liberation, it was the Chinese border and the suburbs of Shanghai outside the public concession and the French concession.

It’s time to start the article, it’s time to start a new article in September, and I’ve finally caught up~~ Readers please collect more, I’ll show you a Thomas Kowtow~~