"Morning Blossoms Plucked at Dusk"

A Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas

Chang Mama, I have already said that she is a female worker who has always led me. Be generous and be my nanny. My mother and many others called her that, seemingly as a courtesy. Only her grandmother calls her Ah Chang. I usually call her "Ama" without even using the word "长"; but when I hate her, for example, when I find out that she was the one who murdered my hidden rat, I call her Ah Chang.

There is no one with the surname Chang there; she was born yellow, fat and short, and "long" is not an adjective. It's not her name. I remember she said herself that her name was some girl. What girl, I have forgotten now, she is not a eldest girl anyway; I finally don’t know her last name. I remember she also told me the origin of this name: A long time ago, there was a female worker in my family who was very tall. This was Zhen A Chang. Later, she went back, and my girl came to fill her shoes. However, because everyone was used to calling her, they did not change their tune, so she became the eldest mother from then on.

Although it is not a good thing to talk about people's shortcomings behind their backs, if you want me to tell the truth, I have to say: I really don't admire her. The most annoying thing is that he often likes to whisper to people. He also raised a second finger, shaking it up and down in the air, or tapping the tip of his opponent's or his own nose. Whenever there is some minor turmoil in my family, I always suspect that it has something to do with this "Qie Qie Cha Cha". I was not allowed to move around, and if I pulled out a blade of grass or turned over a stone, they would say I was naughty and I would tell my mother. In the summer, when she was sleeping, she stretched out her legs and hands to form a "big" character in the middle of the bed. It was so crowded that I had no room to turn over. It was already so hot from sleeping on the mat in one corner for a long time. I pushed her, but she didn't move; I called her, but she didn't listen.

"My eldest mother was born so fat, so she must be afraid of heat? Isn't her sleeping appearance at night not very good?..."

After my mother heard my many complaints, , once asked her this way. I also knew that this meant asking her to give me more empty seats. She didn't speak. But at night, when I woke up from the heat, I still saw the word "big" placed all over the bed, with an arm still resting on my neck. I think this is really unthinkable.

But she knows a lot of rules; these rules are probably what I am impatient with. The happiest time of the year is, of course, New Year's Eve. After saying goodbye to the New Year, you get lucky money from your elders, wrap it in red paper and put it next to your pillow. You can use it as you like after one night. Sleeping on the pillow, looking at the red envelope, thinking about the snare drum, knife and gun, clay figurine, sugar Buddha... I bought tomorrow. However, she came in and placed another lucky orange on the bedside.

"Brother, please remember this!" she said very solemnly. "Tomorrow is the first day of the first lunar month. As soon as I open my eyes in the morning, the first thing you say to me is: 'Mom, congratulations!' Remember? You have to remember that this is a matter of luck for the year. You are not allowed to say goodbye. After all, I have to eat some oranges." She picked up the orange and shook it in front of my eyes. "Then, go with the flow all year round..."

I also remember New Year’s Day in my dream. I woke up very early the next day and had to sit up as soon as I woke up. But she immediately stretched out her arms and held me down. When I looked at her in surprise, I saw her looking at me anxiously.

She shook my shoulder as if she was demanding something. I suddenly remembered——

"Ama, congratulations..."

"Congratulations! Congratulations to everyone! You are so smart! Congratulations!" She seemed very happy, He laughed and stuffed something cold into my mouth. After I was shocked, I suddenly remembered that this was the so-called lucky orange. The ordeal of growing my head on New Year's Day was finally over and I could get out of bed and play.

She taught me many things. For example, when a person is dead, you should not say dead, but must say "old"; a dead person should not leave the house where a child was born. Go in; if the rice falls on the ground, you must pick it up, preferably eat it; you must not get under the bamboo pole used to dry your pants... Besides, I have mostly forgotten it now, only the weird New Year’s Day rituals I remember most clearly. In short: these are all extremely cumbersome things that I still find very troublesome when I think about them.

However, there was a time when I had an unprecedented respect for her. She often talks to me about "long hair". The ones she calls "long-haired" include not only Hong Xiu's entire army, but also all bandits and robbers later on, except for the revolutionary party, because they did not exist at that time.

She said it was very scary to have hairy hair, and they couldn't understand what they said. She said that when Changmao entered the city, all my family fled to the seaside, leaving only a concierge and an old cooking woman to look after the house. Later, Changmao came in, and the old woman called them "King" - it is said that Changmao should be called this way - and complained about her hunger. Changmao smiled and said: "Then, I'll give you this thing to eat!" He threw a round thing over with a small braid, which was the concierge's head. The old woman who cooked was terrified from then on, but when she mentioned it later, her face immediately turned pale, and she patted her chest gently and said: "Oh, it scares me to death, it scares me to death..."

< p>I didn't seem to be afraid at that time, because I felt that these things had nothing to do with me. I was not a concierge. But she probably felt it immediately, and said: "Children like you who have long hair must be kidnapped to make small longhairs. There are also beautiful girls who must be kidnapped."

"Then it doesn't matter to you." I thought she must be the safest. She doesn't work as a concierge, she's not a child, she's not pretty, and she still has many burn scars on her neck.

"What's that?!" she said seriously. "Are we useless? We will also be taken captive. When there are soldiers outside the city to attack, Changmao will ask us to take off our pants and stand in rows on the city wall. The cannons outside will not be able to fire; If you let it go, it will explode!”

This was really unexpected and I couldn’t help but be surprised. I always thought she was just full of troublesome etiquette, but I didn't expect she had such great power. From then on, I had a special respect for her, which seemed to be unfathomable. She stretched out her arms and legs at night and occupied the whole bed. This was of course excusable, and I should have given in. This respect, although it gradually faded, completely disappeared, probably after learning that she murdered my hidden mouse. At that time, he questioned her very seriously and called her "Ah Chang" to her face. I don’t think I’m really a little Changmao, I don’t attack cities, I don’t set off artillery, and I’m not afraid of artillery explosions, so why should I be afraid of her!

But when I mourned the Hidden Mouse and avenged it, I longed for the illustrated "Book of Mountains and Seas" again. This longing was sparked by a distant great-uncle. He is a fat, amiable old man who likes to plant some flowers and trees, such as orchids, jasmine, and the extremely rare lantana, which is said to have been brought back from the north. His wife, on the other hand, was baffled by everything. She once placed a bamboo pole for drying clothes on a branch of Zhulan. When the branch broke, she cursed angrily: "Dead body!" This old man was a lonely person because he had no one to talk to. , loves to interact with children, and sometimes calls us “little friends”. In the house where we live together as a family, he is the only one with many books, and he is special. Of course, there are also poems for crafts and test papers; but I have only seen Lu Ji's "Poems on Mao, Trees, Birds, Beasts, Insects and Fish" by Lu Ji in his study, as well as many books with unfamiliar titles. What I loved most at that time was "Flower Mirror", which had many pictures. He told me that there was once a drawing of the "Book of Mountains and Seas", which showed beasts with human faces, snakes with nine heads, birds with three legs, people with wings, and people with no heads and two breasts as eyes. Monster,...it's a pity that I don't know where it is now.

I would love to see such a picture, but I am embarrassed to force him to look for it. He is very lazy. When I asked others, no one would give me a true answer. I still have a few hundred Wen left in my New Year's money. After buying it, I don't have a good chance. The street where I can buy books is far away from my home. I can only go there once a year during the first month of the year. At that time, both bookstores are closed.

It didn’t matter much when I was playing, but as soon as I sat down, I remembered the drawing of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas".

Probably because he was too obsessed with it, even Ah Chang came to ask what "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was all about. I have never told her this before. I know she is not a scholar and it would be useless to tell her. But since I came to ask, I told her everything.

More than ten days or a month later, I still remember that it was four or five days after she went home on leave. She came back wearing a new blue shirt. As soon as we met, she handed over a packet of He handed the book to me and said happily: -

"Brother, I bought the 'Three Hums Sutra' with pictures for you!"

I seem to have encountered There was a thunderbolt, and everyone was shocked; they quickly went to pick it up, opened the paper package, and found four small books. After flipping through it, they found a beast with a human face, a nine-headed snake... and sure enough, they were all included.

This gave me a new respect. She was able to do things that others were unwilling or unable to do. She does have great powers.

The resentment for murdering Hidden Rat was completely eliminated from then on.

These four books are the first and most beloved books I got.

The appearance of the book is still in front of me. But judging from the appearance in front of you, it is a book with very rough markings. The paper is very yellow; the images are also very bad, almost all straight lines are used, and even the eyes of animals are rectangular. But that is my most beloved book. It looks like a beast with a human face; a snake with nine heads; an ox with one foot; a bag-like river; it has no head and "has breasts as its eyes and its navel as its mouth." , and Xing Tian, ??who "dances while holding on to his work".

After that, I started to collect more books on drawings, so I had the lithographic "Erya Sound Pictures" and "Mao Shi Pinwu Picture Research", and also "Dianshizhai Conghua" and "Poetry". Painting Boat". I also bought another lithographic version of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". Each volume has illustrations, green paintings and red characters, which is much more exquisite than the woodcut one. This volume was still there until the year before last year, and it is a reduced version of Hao Yi's travels. It was carved on wood but I can’t remember when it was lost.

My nanny, the eldest mother, Ah Chang, has passed away from this world for about thirty years. I finally didn’t know her name or her experience; I only knew that she had an adopted son, and she was probably a young widowed widow.

O kindhearted and dark Mother Earth, may her soul rest forever in your arms!

March 10