On a very ordinary afternoon in 1988, I was busy with my daily routine in the shop as usual. An old gentleman pushed open the door and walked in, trembling and pulling a Parker pen from his arms, indicating that he wanted to pawn.
Native to the United States, the Parker fountain pen was popular in the 1950s and 1960s as a status symbol.
I looked at the old gentleman in front of me, he was nearly ancient, had a different literary temperament from others, and spoke with a strong Shandong accent.
Feeling the fate, I asked the old man to sit in the office and rest his legs, and brewed a pot of tea for him to drink. As soon as he sat down, the old man handed me the pen.
Under the light, the pen body appears due to the long-term rubbing between the fingers and the characteristic light, although there are some bump marks, but still can see the user's care.
Turning to the back, I saw that the pen shaft was engraved with the words "Teacher Yang Save".
When I asked, I realized that the old gentleman in front of me was Teacher Yang. As soon as I heard that he was a teacher and a fellow villager in Shandong, my sense of intimacy was sudden, and I couldn't help but chat for a while, and then I asked him again: "Why do you want to be this pen?" ”
Mr. Yang replied, "I am old and my eyesight is not good, so I can't write anything." Instead of letting it sit idle around, it is better to change a little money. If it is passed on to the hands of people who are related, at least they can write and write with it, and the life of the pen can be continued. ”
Asking about the causes and consequences, I admire Mr. Yang's personality as a reader who cherishes stationery.
Although an old Parker pen is not worth much money, and the probability of being bought is not very likely, I immediately wrote the pawn ticket and handed him the pawn's 800 yuan.
Since Mr. Yang lao had no intention of redeeming it, after 3 months, this pen naturally flowed. I took the pen out of the storeroom, wiped it clean, and put it in the glass display case of the store department.
It's a shop's flowing goods display area, dedicated to goods that no one has redeemed, waiting for the favor of other customers.
In general, there are two types of goods that can be simply divided into: one is the items with high market acceptance, such as cameras, watches, electrical appliances, etc., which are usually taken away by vendors who specialize in second-hand goods.
The other is a commodity that all kinds of vendors lack interest in - although Parker pens are brand-name products, there is no distinctive design, and some people even say that collecting pens is not as practical as collecting a lighter.
The small cabinet, although named the display cabinet, is actually very simple - on the one hand, because the flow of goods display cabinet is not conspicuous enough, on the other hand, it is also because there is actually nothing valuable in it, naturally it is not as eye-catching and bright as the department store window.
For more than a year, let alone sold, not even a guest who asked about Parker's pen, and gradually, I forgot about this pen.
Image source: Panorama Vision
At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, a gentleman happened to be waiting for the bus at the bus stop in front of the pawnshop, looking around idly, and just in time, he saw the flowing goods display cabinet.
He fixed his eyes on it for a while, then immediately walked into the store and asked, "Boss, can you take out the pen in the cupboard and look at it?" I said, "Of course you can!" "Judging from his appearance and conversation, he should be a reader, so I beckoned him to sit in the office for a while.
He picked up the pen and looked at it repeatedly, and the more he looked, the more complicated his expression became. When he saw the inscription on the pen holder, he suddenly changed his look, burst into tears with excitement, and choked up and asked: "May I ask if the person who is the person who uses this pen is Teacher Yang Moumou?" A big man wept in front of me with twenty years of Parker's pen, frightening me into hurrying through the pawn records.
Sure enough, the name of the pawn was as he said, and when the reader heard it, his emotions became more excited, and he burst into tears for a while.
I urged him to drink some tea to stabilize his mood, and asked him what sad things he remembered. He wiped his face and talked.
"My dad was a lumberjack and used his labor every day in exchange for the family's expenses. But when I was in my third year of high school, my father died in an accident, and the family lost its financial support, so my mother had to go out to do odd jobs.
"Seeing that the joint entrance examination is coming, and my mother's income is limited, I really can't support my family." In order to maintain my family, I had to give up my studies.
"At that time, Teacher Yang taught us Chinese language lessons for a year. When he learned of my situation, he didn't want to see me drop out of school, and even insisted on helping me with my tuition, insisting that I finish high school.
"I studied hard, and finally I was admitted to college, and later became a teacher, and finally lived up to Teacher Yang's expectations of me."
"Although Mr. Yang only taught us for one year, the students were deeply impressed by him. His Shandong accent was particularly heavy, and the first time he went to class, no one in the class could understand what he was talking about.
After a period of time, the students got used to his accent, and found that the teacher's knowledge was very deep, and he could tell the boring ancient text vividly and interestingly.
"When I graduated from high school, the whole class paid for a pen from the teacher, which was the one in my hand."
After listening to his story, I couldn't help but be moved, not expecting that a seemingly inconspicuous Parker pen actually contained a teacher-student friendship spanning 20 years.
The reader asked me how much the pen was going to sell, and he wanted to redeem it. I listened and shook my hand and said, "This pen means a lot to you, you want to give me money, I don't know how to collect it!" I've got it for you. ”
Then, I found the address registered by Teacher Yang more than a year ago and told him to visit the teacher quickly when he had time and reminisce about the past.
In the end, the reader really found Teacher Yang, and even summoned more than thirty students who had been taught by Teacher Yang to hold a classmate's meeting and a thank you banquet, and specially invited me to participate. The scene of the day was warm and touching, and I still remember it.
In retrospect, it was all an incredible coincidence. My flowing goods display cabinet is very inconspicuous, not only small and old, not often wiped, and the things placed inside are so varied that I can't really see a famous place without looking closely.
But the reader passed by the door of the store, casually glanced twice, and actually recognized the inconspicuous Parker pen that was sent 20 years ago, you know, the inscription on the top is on the back!
Teacher Yang's spring wind and rain in that year gave this reader the opportunity to continue his further studies, and also influenced and changed his life. And the reader is also a person of temperament, if he had not always been grateful for the support of the teacher, I am afraid that he would not have the opportunity to recount their teacher-student friendship 20 years ago.
Life's encounters are full of countless accidents, which often have a good side, but not all of them can feel it.
Only with kindness and gratitude can such an accident be completed, just like the friendship and fate that Teacher Yang and the students can reunite after 20 years.
Author: Qin Silin, Source: Reader Magazine, No. 7, 2018, original titled "Twenty Years of Parker Pen".