Wanderers in other places always lack a sense of belonging.
Strange cities, as if there is an invisible barrier in the air, keeping the people living here out of the bustle, people try to find a sense of belonging from the surroundings, so as to make their lonely selves look less fragile.
Although it is not easy to live outside, there are always people who are passing on the courage of life to others in their own way.
I hope that all the turbulence in the first half of life can be exchanged for the stability of the rest of my life. This has been going on for years, and the future can be expected. ——2021.11.17
Sitting in a noodle restaurant in a foreign land, waiting for a steaming bowl of wontons.
I was rubbing my red and cracked hands to my mouth and gasping for air, when I saw the boss come to the table with a rag on his shoulder and clean up the dishes left by a guest at the table.
Suddenly he turned to me and said a word, I knew the boss was speaking in this local dialect, I couldn't help but be stunned, and had to respond to him with an embarrassed smile.
The boss looked at me with a confused look, as if he understood something, and turned to ask me in Mandarin, which is also local: "Do you need to put green onions in your ravioli?" This time, I finally realized, smiled and nodded, "To add, thank you."
At this point, I can't help but think of the last time I was shopping at a grocery store near the rental house, when I was preparing to check out at the cash register, and because I couldn't hear the price the boss said in dialect, I paid a part of the money, and then I was misunderstood by the customer standing behind me in line.
With this in mind, I prayed once again that the next time to communicate with others would be late.
The owner finally brought the cooked ravioli up, and then sat in the corner of the adjacent table, rolling out the dough while talking to the family, unsurprisingly, using "encrypted calls" that I did not understand.
"Hmm, are you talking about any secrets that I'm afraid I'll hear?" It's been almost a month since I've been here, and I've been listening to almost all dialects every day, and my ears are almost cocooned. I thought as I took a spoon and stroked the green onions in the bowl.
At this time, the mobile phone in the pocket suddenly vibrated, and it was a voice message sent by a small one: "Ah Ling, it has been almost a month in the blink of an eye, everything is okay outside?" It's cold in the north, remember to wear more clothes! The familiar and intimate dialect of my hometown thus arrived in this strange city, and although the words fell, I suddenly became energetic in this warmth.
With his already frozen red fingers, he opened his voice and replied in dialect: "Rest assured, where can I not have a good life?" Gee! Or his own words listen to comfortable ah, catchy, lingering sound around the beam, which is like the rhyme in this ice and snow, rough and heroic, and difficult to figure out, there is no beauty to speak of. "I'm like a reputable artist, commenting on it smugly.
At this moment, the neighboring table somehow erupted into a hearty burst of laughter, followed by a continuous conversation in dialects. I couldn't help but look around—it turned out that in this icy snow, I was the only lone passerby, alone to bear the cold of this winter night.
I looked up at the mottled ceiling and felt out of my pocket a box of cigarettes that had been given to me when I came out of the house, and now I had only this pack of cigarettes left.
As the flint on the lighter collapsed out of Mars, I leaned forward and lit the cigarette in my mouth, took a deep breath and spat it into the air, and the clouds were swirling, and suddenly remembered some memorable scenes:
I remember the last time I returned to my hometown, I saw a middle-aged man wearing a helmet waving his hand to greet me, and said in our local dialect: "Boy! Want to take a car? Ready to go right away! ”
This short sentence, spoken in our dialect, was so beautiful that I felt relieved in an instant, and the whole person was refreshed. I agreed to the master who ran the private car and got into a van like a wild drag racing car.
In the car, I saw four travelers returning from out of town like me, most of them leaning back in their seats, some smoking and looking out the window, someone brushing a short video on his mobile phone, the dim light from the screen shining on his face, and I saw a few undulating wrinkles in the corners of his eyes.
Suddenly, only a sharp brake sound was heard from the tire, and the whole person fell into a sudden sense of weightlessness.
Fortunately, the speed of the car returned to stability after a rapid reduction. Before I could recover from the sudden situation I had just had, the young man who smoked squeezed the remaining cigarette butt and said to the driver in dialect, "××××!" Master, what are you doing? Drive slowly, my cigarettes are all rubbed by you! ”
The master held the steering wheel in one hand, and with the other hand, he covered the reflective forehead and said, "Little descendant, I drive, you can rest assured!" Smoke less, good for your body. ”
The young man seemed to be angry about the cigarettes he had only smoked half of, and said in fluent dialect: "This time when I came back, I bought this bag of Chinese with great care, and a bag is worth half a day's salary!" ”
Listening to their passionate conversation, I finally found the opportunity to feel the smoke in my pocket and give it to the young man, saying, "Come, brother smoke me!" Everyone take a step back, Master, you drive slowly, I still want to get home on time! ”
After saying this, my mood was instantly much happier, of course, this was said in the dialect of my hometown.
To my surprise, I am used to speaking Mandarin outside, but once I return to my home turf, the dialect can always blurt out.
I can't help but laugh out loud at the thought of this, "Just like the people here feel naturally comfortable with their local dialects, it turns out that I also have a special love for my own dialect, which is not only a unique way of communication in a region, but also a carrier of family affection." "I bounced off a piece of soot, and the discomfort in my ears seemed to ease somewhat.
Suddenly I felt a cold wind blowing behind me, it turned out that the door of the noodle restaurant had been pushed open, and in walked in a middle-aged man wearing a knitted hat on his head, with some ice ballast on his shoulders, which melted into water in this warm room and seeped into the cotton coat.
I saw him walk up to the pasta owner, say something, and then reach out his hand and draw a comparison on the menu diagonally above his head, before passing me and sitting diagonally opposite me.
The middle-aged man had his hands in his pockets, his eyes seemed to be looking at something, and I had no intention of understanding, and after taking the last sip of my cigarette, I snuffed it out in the ashtray.
At this time, the middle-aged man seemed to have found something, put the knitted hat on his head on the table, got up and walked in the direction where I was.
I was still leaning over to eat the wontons in the bowl, and suddenly I felt a hand tapping me on the shoulder, and I raised my head to show a puzzled look to the middle-aged man, who seemed to be very nervous, his mouth slightly open, and he wanted to stop talking. Finally he squeezed out a smile and stuttered at me in the local dialect.
"What does this man mean?" Isn't Mandarin the national language? Have something to say, don't speak in tongues! "Hearing this rhyme and tone again, which I did not know, my heart was really broken.
But out of courtesy, I still acted calmly and said, "Can you speak Mandarin?" I'm not local and can't understand what you're saying. When the middle-aged man heard what I said, his expression seemed to relax a little, and he said in Mandarin with a southern accent: "Boy, I forgot to bring a lighter, can I borrow a fire?" ”
Hearing the kind Mandarin, I was equally relieved, took out the only remaining box of cigarettes from my pocket, and scattered one to the middle-aged man, "Smoke mine, the cigarettes here should not be used to smoking, right?" With that, he lit his cigarette with a fire and lit one for himself.
As the middle-aged man spat out a long string of delicate smoke from his mouth, he seemed to relax completely. "How long have you been learning this dialect?" Why doesn't it sound too skilled? "I first broke the silence.
He grabbed a cigarette with his finger, swung it awkwardly in the air, and said: "I usually learn to learn when I listen to people talking, and I always have to learn some local dialect when I go out, and I can't be bullied as a foreigner." ”
Hearing this, I nodded to him helplessly but in agreement, and said, "Yeah, wandering away always has to learn to look stronger." After saying this, we were silent and each smoked the cigarette in our hands.
Suddenly the middle-aged man's phone rang, and his face immediately fell into the previous tense look, and the phone was very loud, as if it was from the boss, saying that the new urgent order in the factory needed to be completed immediately.
So he hurried back to his desk, put on his hat, walked over to the counter, still talking to his boss in a tone I didn't understand.
After a while, he took the fast food box packed in the boss's hand, came to my desk to shake my hand, and said, "Little brother, you eat slowly, I rushed back to work overtime." ”
I looked at his hands, which had been frozen red by the wind and snow, and felt half a box of cigarettes out of his pocket and held them in his hands. "Uncle, if I'm not mistaken, you're also from the south, we have such a fate, you take this pack of cigarettes to smoke, you're not welcome." I said with a smile.
Seeing that I was so polite, the uncle did not shirk, accepted my kindness, and waved goodbye to me.
Feeling the cold wind blowing in outside the door again, I was once again plunged into a world full of dialects. After finishing the bowl of ravioli in front of me, I went to the cashier to prepare to pay.
The boss waved his hand, paused for a moment, and then said to me in Mandarin: "Little brother, that person has already paid for you just now!" ”
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh All right. I narrowed my eyes in surprise and said.
I was about to turn around and leave when the boss stopped me: "Little brother, you wait a minute. ”
Inexplicably, I leaned halfway and asked, "Is there anything else?" It was cold enough this night, and if it was all right, I had to hurry back. "I was originally uncomfortable talking to the locals, but now of course I want to end the conversation more quickly.
The next second, my eyes widened in surprise again.
Only to see the boss from behind the counter took out a pair of orange-red gloves in a transparent box, handed it forward and said: "This is what I bought on the Internet a few days ago, and then I felt that the color was too bright, suitable for you young people, I want to give it to you, just now my wife also laughed at me and said that young people don't like this color." But this is a cold day, let's wear it first, we must pay attention to keep warm! With that, he shoved it into my hand.
I smiled and pushed back, but I couldn't resist the kindness of the boss, and finally took the orange-red gloves and thanked him.
"Don't think it's for you to be sent in vain, you can come to visit often in the future!" The boss jokingly shouted at me as I walked to the door.
"Nice! Definitely! I put on that pair of gloves, waved at them, and walked out the door of the pasta restaurant.
On the way back to the rental house, I felt warm in my stomach because of the bowl of wontons I had just eaten; the palm of my hand felt hot, orange-yellow was probably the warmest color; a warm current in my heart surged forward, making me feel extremely kind and at ease.
In this way, this winter spent in this northern city, I felt the temperature of the city for the first time.