short

Nantang old dream

2018.7.25

In the middle of the night, I suddenly dream about juvenile affairs, and the dream cries, make-up and tears are red. ——Bai Juyi

Compared with ten years ago, Nantang in [-] has not changed much.There are black-covered boats in the middle of the river, and there are tall buildings on stilts on both sides. The downstairs is the same as before, with blue bricks and green tiles, and gray stone walls.

On the 29th of the year, all the oil and salt shops on the street were closed, and every family’s New Year’s goods were sold out. The juniors were busy pasting couplets and window grilles at home, and brothers and sisters from various families were playing and fighting, and they went wherever they were busy, adults. They were so busy that they yelled and drank six.

Luo Jiaan was different from them, he jumped out of bed before dawn, wrapped himself in an old gray coat, put on a bamboo hat and wore it as he walked, pushed open the courtyard door, and the old wooden door creaked, shutting the room The adults who were sleeping were woken up.

"Jia'an! What are you doing so early?"

Hearing it was a fucking voice, Luo Jiaan, who was about to slip away, stood obediently, and replied loudly: "I'll go to Zhenkou to pick up Brother Xing Ping, he'll be back today!"

"Brother Xing Ping has someone from his family to pick him up, so what are you doing!"

"I wrote to brother Xing Ping, and he said he was waiting for me at the pier." After speaking, Luo Jiaan didn't care what his mother was complaining about in the house, and closed the courtyard door directly, shrinking his neck, shrugging his shoulders, and facing the morning In the cold wind, he walked towards the place where he moored the boat.

The snow that fell at night had not yet melted, and he was wearing padded rain boots, which creaked all the way, only he could hear it clearly.

It was still dark, and most of the extradited boatmen hadn't come yet. Only one old boatman who had been sleeping on the boat was there. When Luo Jiaan came, he was bending over and getting out of the cabin.

At that time, the town had just been connected to electricity, and the power supply was unstable, so the boat could only light kerosene lamps. The old boatman was wearing a coir raincoat and hung the lamps on the hooks of the boat canopy. Only then did the dark riverside have light.

As soon as the old boatman raised his head, he happened to see a black shadow jumping onto the boat by the light, bending over to untie the cable beside the boat. He was startled at first, and just about to shout, he recognized that it was the second boy of the Luo family. He hoarsely yelled: "Hey! Brat! Where are you going in the dark?"

"I'll go to Zhenkou to pick up Brother Xing Ping, he's coming back today!" Luo Jiaan laughed twice, and with a push on the pole, the boat turned, and the lights reflected on the sparkling water were pushed away, like pieces of gold Flickering.

"Which family is Xing Ping? Why don't I know?" The old boatman squatted on the bow, squinting his eyes and recalling.

Luo Jiaan's tone immediately rose a little bit: "The boss of the Xing family in Zhenxi, he went to Yancheng to study at university two years ago, and he only came back this year. You welcome and send more people every day, so naturally you don't remember .”

"Oh---" The old boatman stroked his hair, and finally opened his squinted eyes: "I remember him, the great talent in our town, I gave him to him when he left, hehe, he is more promising than you Ah, boy!"

These words were obviously hurtful to him, but Luo Jiaan raised his eyebrows when he heard it: "Of course he is more promising than me, so naturally I can't compare with brother Xing Ping."

After the words fell, the boat under Luo Jiaan's feet was already tens of meters away from the shore, and the old boatman couldn't hear what he said, so he could only wave goodbye vigorously.

"No one can compare with Brother Xing Ping." Luo Jiaan stood at the bow of the boat, looking at the slightly reddish sky, and muttered to himself.

Most of the young people who left home in Nantang went to work, so at six or seven o’clock, the town’s wharf was full of wage earners with big bags on their backs, all of them were gray and green cotton jackets, old in style, and their faces were covered with pimples from the night. Tired of traveling.

Brother Xing Ping said in his letter that he didn't arrive until seven o'clock, but he didn't expect that Luo Jia'an, a stunned man, would be waiting at the pier at six o'clock. In the crowd, like a frozen wallaby.

Luo Jiaan hadn't seen Xing Ping for two years, but he picked him out of the crowd at a glance. He immediately raised his hand and shouted loudly, "Brother Xing Ping! Here, I am here!"

Xing Ping's appearance of Confucianism is engraved in his bones, even in the early morning when there is light snow, even if there is a noisy crowd between them, Luo Jia'an still branded that figure on his face all at once. eyes.

That's the one he never forgets.