Text | Meng Qiujun
For a time, that peddling sound was the alarm of people in the alley every morning, which rang from one end of the alley to the other.
The first string of cries belongs to an aunt who sells milk.
When the word "selling milk" was called in her throat, it became "selling cow-milk" with six syllables. The word "selling milk" had to make two or three turns in her throat before it was strung on the other two high syllables. The tone was not very high, but it was sent to everyone's ears one by one. People in the alley started their lives in this sound of selling milk.
Aunt's crying can always call out several families in the alley. Aunt's milk is as big as a small piece of tofu, but whiter, as white as a gauze cloud in the morning sky; And softer than tofu, like gluten, as salty as sufu, and chewy.
The alley is surrounded by gray houses, where simple families who go to bed early and get up early live. Three or two pieces of milk are enough for a family's breakfast. Put a few pieces of white milk on the dining table in a gray house, the taste of porridge will be different, and the breakfast of a family will also have a salty taste.
Aunt's milk is not expensive either. She shared a piece of milk and never saw anyone bargain. Although it is cheap, my aunt never encourages people to buy more. Some people thought about buying it in a few days, but she said, "You don't have to buy any more rice. I'll be back tomorrow. " Auntie never breaks her word. The next morning, on time, before people had breakfast, the voice of "sell-cow-milk" rang from the other end of the alley to this end.
It's not just the cry of the aunt in the alley. Middle-aged people selling sugar cane have to ride bicycles to pull two baskets of sugar cane every day. His crying rang from one end to the other at noon on time, and he was going to buy sugar cane when others came home from work.
His cry is short and powerful. "Sell sugar cane, sell sugar cane", his Minnan dialect always sounds "fight, fight".
It didn't make sense at first, but when I thought about it, everyone would have a rest after lunch at noon, and his two baskets of sugarcane would be sold for a while before others got off work. Time is precious, so he shouted in a hurry, which really sounded like a fight.
The man who wanted to fight had just left for a while when the seller of fairy grass came. The young man gave a gentle cry. "selling fairy grass" is as soft and sweet as cotton candy, and its throat itches. People wake up in this soft and sweet "selling fairy grass" and really want to buy a bowl to relieve the heat.
The peddling in the alley never stopped. These hawking voices are repeated almost every day, and these people are called buying and selling.
When you listen to "soybean oil and juice", everyone can't help but see how much soy sauce and fish sauce they have. Someone will take out some empty bottles, walk to his scooter and watch him fill them with a spoon. When the bottle is full, the housewife's heart will be full. This full bottle can stir up life for ten days and a half months, and it will have some color.
The loudest peddlers are those who collect secondhand goods and used household appliances. "Old fans, old televisions, old washing machines, old refrigerators, old computers ..." This long list of old household appliances reported all the old household appliances in the alley. It seems that every family has something waiting for him to buy, so every time he shouts out a string of business, he can always collect a few old household appliances.
Collectors of old electrical appliances are always accompanied by another second-hand goods collector, "buy newspapers, cartons and beer bottles;" Buy plastic, sand aluminum pot, inferior slippers ... "This string of hawking covers almost the whole life of people in hutongs, such as necessities, rice, eating and drinking Lazar. All the pots and pans once filled their lives, but now they are scattered in a corner of the house. These old, broken and bad are all past lives.
Isn't it? The days passed in the sound of knocking and selling. Their hawking sounds in the alley every day. From one end to the other, the people in the alley turned into porcelain, filled with this string of hawking.
"Selling-cow-milk", "Want to fight", "Soybean oil, fruit juice" all sound like "fighting for your life".