Chinese Almanac Master

Eight days before the Spring Festival of [-], Xiao Nanzhu, who had been a soldier outside for [-], finally ended his military career and returned to his hometown Y City.

Although City Y is his hometown, but in truth, his home has been here for a long time.He has no father or mother, and his only relative is his grandmother.The old lady had gone to heaven the year he joined the army, because he didn't have a lot of money. After the demolition of the old city, Xiao Nanzhu, who was still in the army, couldn't afford a house in the local area.Now that he has retired from the army, the transfer fee given by the army is not too much. Apart from his strength, he has no special skills. When he changed jobs, his comrades asked him about his future plans, but Xiao Nanzhu just casually responded to this Smiling, and then perfunctory with a sentence of one step at a time.

To him, City Y is just a short resting place after wandering for so many years, and Xiao Nanzhu, who is now in his thirties, actually doesn't think much about his future.

He spent the first half of his life in this city. Before the old lady passed away and the house was demolished, he lived in a very old-fashioned alley in his childhood.The hutong is not big, but it is connected with more than 60 to [-] families, all of whom are old neighbors who have lived nearby for more than [-] years.

These neighbors are familiar with each other, and most of them are engaged in similar businesses.Because City Y can be regarded as a famous historical and cultural city in retrospect, the most people in these old alleys are old people who are familiar with traditional folk customs.Or selling antiques to see calligraphy and painting, or looking at the bones while looking at the physiognomy, or the upper body dance master, or acupuncture and moxibustion medicine for people, in short, by now, they are all old things that are about to be eliminated.For example, Xiao Nanzhu's grandma is a watcher of life, whenever a girl in the alley gets married, or a beam is put on a house, there must be some time for Xiao Nanzhu's grandma to watch the day.The old lady doesn't usually go out, and she earns some pocket money to nourish her grandson by watching her life. And after three or four generations have been passed down like this, it is inevitable that these juniors who live here and grow up together will have friendship. Well, when Xiao Nanzhu came back from the army this trip, the first thing he notified was a good buddy who grew up with him.

Speaking of this buddy, Xiao Nanzhu himself has not seen him for five or six years.The management in the army is strict, and even on occasional family visits, he has not been able to meet Fa Xiao.What remains in my memory now are only some scenes when the two of them walked around the alley together when they were eleven or twelve years old, and if you think about it again, there are only some yellow and messy fragments about when they lived in that alley.

So just like that, Xiao Nanzhu came back just like that, with the longing for his hometown and his old friend.The day he arrived in Y City happened to be Lunar New Year's Eve, and facing the most turbulent wave of returning home at the end of the year in China, he walked out of the train station alone with his few luggage, his eyes were blurred by the cold .

During the winter tide, the streets and alleys are all white.Because the Spring Festival is approaching, passers-by are all smiling.Most of the people seen outside the station were backs rushing home with their luggage, which further accentuated their tall and straight figure. At this moment, the thin man with a pale face was a bit out of place, and when he frowned and nodded at the station gate, Yuxi, when he bit the filter to his mouth and took a sip, he suddenly heard a yelling voice not far away, saying,

"Xiao Nanzhu! Xiao Nanzhu! Here it is! Hey! Why are you standing there stupidly!"

Tall, with a small cropped head, wearing a black double-breasted jacket with a dejected look, the man with round sunglasses opened his mouth wide, and looked strange from a distance.

Xiao Nanzhu, who was still in a daze, raised his eyes to see this person, and felt a sudden shock in his heart. After confirming that this person was really calling him, and that he looked familiar from his facial features, he took a few steps from the Walked down the steps, looked him up and down with a cigarette in his mouth, then laughed and said,

"Hey, I said you are dressed like this for the Chinese New Year, are you here to pick me up, or are you here to pick up my funeral..."

The young man in the sunglasses was taken aback by these words, and he took off the sunglasses with his fingers. He squinted his eyes and pursed his lips and said in a sinister tone,

"What are you talking about, baby! This isn't work clothes! I came here to pick you up just after work, and you're so heartless, aren't you satisfied? What's the matter, buddy, I'm the host today, let's go have a drink first and then chat How have you been each of these years..."

I haven't seen him for many years, and this guy's tone is not unfamiliar.Xiao Nanzhu, who was used to being cold-hearted and cold-faced, somehow felt a little relieved in his heart, curled up his mouth and hooked his neck, and gave him a firm hug.Mr. Situ Zhang, who was dressed like a blind man, laughed when he saw this, and was strangled by Xiao Nanzhu as he walked forward, but his heart was quite warm, and when the two took a taxi, they found a local restaurant. After I started talking about the past, it was already half an hour later.

When old friends meet, it's nothing more than talking about the past and talking about old relationships.Both of them grew up together when they were young, so naturally their conversations were a little more casual.Xiao Nanzhu was used to being a rough soldier outside, and he was not polite to Situ Zhang. He ordered a few dishes and a bottle of wine, and then leaned on the back of the chair in the small restaurant and started smoking. Situ Zhang, who was asking questions, didn't care about this guy's habit of ignoring his own virtue, he just let out a sigh of relief, wiped his round sunglasses with a glasses cloth and asked,

"Have you solved your personal problem?"

"It's all public, how to solve it?"

"Has the work problem been solved?"

"I'm waiting for a job, what can I arrange for you?"

Replying lazily like this, Xiao Nanzhu squinted his eyes and shook the soot on his fingertips nonchalantly.After returning from this trip, he has actually made plans for long-term unemployment. After all, this society is under great pressure of employment competition, and young college students may not be able to find a job, let alone a veteran ruffian like him.Situ Zhang who heard the words grinned, and put the round sunglasses back on the bridge of his nose, and Xiao Nanzhu, who saw it, subconsciously asked,

"Ask me so much, what about yourself?"

After asking this question, Xiao Nanzhu obviously felt that Situ Zhang's smile was restrained a bit, Xiao Nanzhu and Situ Zhang looked at each other wordlessly, the dead sunglasses only smiled and did not speak, Xiao Nanzhu leaned in front of him After taking a closer look, he deliberately suppressed his voice and said solemnly,

"Hey, you've been wearing sunglasses since I saw you just now, you didn't cut off your double eyelids secretly, did you..."

"..."

At that moment, Situ Zhang's face was so exciting that Xiao Nanzhu let out a muffled laugh before pursing his lips pretending to be serious.

"Xiao Nanzhu, you grandson."

Cursing viciously, Situ Zhang frowned. He really didn't know what to say about Xiao Nanzhu's habit of teasing himself since he was a child. Zhu looked at him with a half-smile and said,

"I opened a massage parlor for the blind, and I'll take you to see it some other day. It's not the kind of big health care, don't think about it, it's just serious Qigong massage therapy..."

In fact, even if Situ Zhang didn't say anything, Xiao Nanzhu could guess what this guy was doing now.After all, the ancestral craftsmanship of the Situ Zhang family is well-known.Among all kinds of professions, qigong masters are always dubbed liars, and their reputation is basically no different from that of a counterfeit drug seller.And how many years ago, when the two of them were neighbors, Situ Zhang's parents specially gave qigong massage to people.

When Xiao Nanzhu was a child, every time he went to play with Situ Zhang, he could see many old men and old ladies queuing up there waiting for Master Situ to perform his exercises.Master Situ is Situ Zhang's biological father, and it is said that if he performs gong once, he will live 15 minutes longer.

A lot of people obviously believed this kind of nonsense at that time, but it was not a new business in that old alley at that time, so Xiao Nanzhu never took it seriously, but what I didn't expect was that Situ At such a young age, Zhang actually went to do this kind of work that has long been eliminated by the times. After all, in his impression, Situ Zhang had a clever mind and could not find a way out for no reason. He just smiled, then poured a full glass of Harbin Beer into the glass in front of him before saying,

"What's the matter, I didn't expect that I could inherit the ancestral business? My family's ancestral qigong has been passed down to this generation for more than 300 years, so we can't just stop it like this? Besides, my blind massage business is doing well, if it wasn't for picking you up today , I still have dozens of customers queuing up behind... If you want me to say that you have been away for too long, you don't know much. Do you remember Aunt Liu, the great dancer in our alley? She The eldest girl and the second girl both go to dance schools, one learns modern dance and the other learns ethnic dance. The great gods who dance now are easier to manifest than others. Do you remember the astrological uncle Wang? His grandson Wang Xiaodong, on Weibo A well-known expert in astrology earns a lot more than me... Oh, and of course there's Li Xiangu who knows how to get on top of a ghost, and Uncle Zheng who has a big stone in his chest..."

"..."

The wine in his throat almost spewed out, Xiao Nanzhu really didn't expect that his old neighbors seemed to have a bright future of their own, and seeing his unbelieving expression, Situ Zhang didn't expect this. The guy could hear it, and just smiled and blinked at him and said,

"Nowadays people always say that fortune-telling, qigong and traditional Chinese medicine are unscientific. In fact, what is unscientific? Isn't it something that science can't explain? We talk about science, and it's one thing not to be superstitious, but it's related to the inheritance of folk customs. , the ancestral unique knowledge of cultural continuation cannot be neglected, don’t you think so? Speaking of which, your old lady was a famous Huangli teacher back then, and you didn’t think about inheriting your family’s craft. It’s better than just being idle when you come back. Bar……"

Hearing this, Xiao Nanzhu was stunned for a moment, thinking of the old lady whose family had been away for four or five years, there was a trace of emotion in his eyes.However, this suggestion made by Situ Zhang is not very constructive in itself. After all, when his grandmother was alive, he did not intend to pass on the ability to read the almanac to him. As a way out for your future.

Thinking like this, Xiao Nanzhu didn't take these words to heart.The night's drinking didn't end until almost ten o'clock, and the two of them came out of the small restaurant with a smell of alcohol, and their steps were a little unsteady.Casually rejecting Situ Zhang's proposal to take a bath all night, Xiao Nanzhu waved his hand and left after making a verbal promise to meet again next time, and when he returned to the rental house with his luggage, This old house, which had not been lived in by a living person for more than a year, finally turned on the lights tonight.

Old sofa, old wooden table, old almanac hanging on the wall.

The things in the house were left by the old man, Xiao Nanzhu didn't have time to clean them up after she passed away, and he wasn't willing to take them away.Now that he is back, although there is an unpleasant musty smell in the room, there are memories of the past everywhere, and when Xiao Nanzhu, who was a little drunk, walked into the room, he first touched the wall Turned on the light, went to the kitchen to boil a pot of water, and sat back in the living room.

The sound of fireworks rang out from time to time outside the window. It was almost the Chinese New Year, and there was excitement everywhere.

Waiting for the boiling water to boil, Xiao Nanzhu leaned back on the old sofa in a daze, and could vaguely hear the sound of the upstairs residents moving the tables and chairs.The old wall clock on the wall showed that half an hour would pass today, Xiao Nanzhu moved his eyes and glanced at the old Huang Li next to it, but suddenly frowned strangely.

In a house that hasn't been occupied by people for more than a year, it is reasonable to say that the position of anything should not change in the slightest.

But for some reason, when Xiao Nanzhu's eyes met the old yellow calendar hanging on the wall of the main room, he inexplicably found that the date was turned on today's page.

"Wednesday, February 2027, 2..."

For a while, Xiao Nanzhu couldn't turn his head around, thinking about the time when he left home last time, he always felt that the old yellow calendar hanging on the wall was indescribably weird.The doubt in his heart prompted him to stand up and walk to the wall, and when he carefully looked at the page of the old yellow calendar, Xiao Nanzhu found that besides the densely packed words of auspicious zodiac signs and daily fortune, there was also a painting in the middle of the yellow calendar. A carp boy dressed in a bright red jacket with brocade embroidery and a mole between his eyebrows.

"Sanhe tiger dog, nine stars and four fates, auspicious days of the zodiac, everything is possible...so it is called a young... year?"

Talking to himself, he read out the small characters in italics under Huang Li, and Xiao Nanzhu, who was full of doubts, always felt that something strange was about to happen.This unexplained premonition made him subconsciously frowned, and in the next second, he watched the carp boy who had been motionless on the almanac suddenly opened his eyes, and first shook his face with a fishy smell. water stains, and then yelled at him angrily with staring eyes,

"I still have half an hour to get off work today !!! Which brain is sick and finds me! Do you want to die !!! Ah!!!!! (╯ ‵ □ □ □)

Xiao Nanzhu: "..."