Classic Re-reading | Zhang Wei: "Father's Sea"

Read the scriptures again

Zhang Wei was born in 1956 in Longkou, Shandong. He began publishing in 1975. He has published 48 volumes of Zhang Wei's Collected Writings, which have been translated into English, Japanese, French, Korean, German, Spanish, Swedish and other languages. He is the author of nineteen novels, including "Ancient Ship", "September Fable", "Hedgehog Song", "Book of Other Provinces", and "You are in the Plateau". "Ancient Ships" and other works have won the National Excellent Novel Award, "100 Kinds of Good Chinese Literature Books in 100 Years", "Top 100 Chinese Novels in the World", Mao Dun Literature Award, "Asia Weekly" Top Ten Chinese Novels, China Good Book Award, National Bestseller Award, China Excellent Publication Award and many other awards.

Father's sea

Zhang wei

One

This was my father's third year back from hard labor.

He was summoned to sea in early autumn. Because there was very little work in the field at this time. More than half of those who pull the big net are on call – so the fishermen who have been fixed at sea for many years feel superior to others, and they always pay no attention to the new net pullers. One by one, they were all shiny, and the fishing man who had just arrived was white as soon as he took off his clothes, which looked shabby and laughable in contrast. Not only did Dad not know how to fish, but he had just learned to do the crops. But in my eyes, he seemed to have no difficulty in doing anything. "You man," the sea boss came over and pointed his hand at the bridge of his father's nose, "you can dig a hole in the mountain, you can't do this." The sea boss called "old roller", and his words made the people on the side laugh.

I wanted to go to sea with my father from the beginning to see how they had thrown that great net into the sea and pulled pile after pile of fish ashore. But I was afraid of my father's reprimand, and I always waited for him to go a long way before quietly running out of the hut and chasing after him around the bushes. When I saw his back, I slowed down again; my father blended in with the men who pulled the nets before I dared to approach the fish shops. There was always a large group of children playing there, and I mixed with them, and my father did not notice.

I gradually became familiar with every procedure for pulling fish. The stacked nets were first transported into the sea in a wooden boat — not far from shore, one person rocked the fence, and the remaining few began casting nets. The boat paddled into the depths of the sea, and the net was cast all the way down. The figures on the ship gradually blurred. I was afraid for them. On the high waves, the white waves became a little distant, and they lifted the little boat. The ship was motionless on the pitch-black sea, as if frozen; but if you stare at it, you will find that it is laboriously deflected to one side, and it is circling a little bit toward the shore. The shaker was sweating profusely, and his arms were as thick as the mouth of a bowl. The ship was near shore, and the netcasters were still throwing nets—they had cast them in a large semicircle in the sea and finally landed. The two ends of the net are hundreds of meters apart, and long mesh threads protrude from each end. People bite like ants on the silk, all wrap the lanyard on the rope on the butt, and then the trumpet sounds, and the people shout and pull the net backwards. A deep nest was stepped out of the sand. It would take two or three hours for the net to dock.

What an exciting time it was! The fish jump in the shallow water near the shore, and you can even hear them squeaking. Shrimp, crabs, big fish, small fish, jump up together. Once I saw a large fish with silver spots on its body, with a large belly, but a huge belly that grew on the end of the head, looking like a small helicopter; some fish jumped up vertically, like an upright long knife... What an enchanting place, I felt at this time that this was the best place a person could find.

I looked at the layers of sails on the sea, imagined the distant horizons of the sky, imagined the unknown fate, and felt how strange all this was. The boundless sea of ripples, it is right in front of us, and we seem to be accustomed to all this, think it is very common. In fact, how strange it should be when you think about it, how strange it is. Isn't it? Look at the group of people who pull the big net in front of me, they are with the sea all day long, but they look at the sea with such a normal eye, which I can never do. I think it may be that they are tired of exertion and have no mind. It's really tired here, and it can exhaust people here.

The old roller is the one who says one thing and the same thing in the whole sea, and everyone is afraid of him. The people who bought the fish, the children who watched the nets, were afraid of him. As soon as he raised his hand we had to dodge. He kept cursing, and whoever was scolded by him had to laugh and giggle at him—he really had a red beard on his face, and his nickname was "Red Beard." Everyone knows how terrible it is for people with red beards. When everyone pulled the net, he held a stick in his hand and turned it. Once, I saw a man pulling a net hard, and for some reason the rope hanging on the rope was a little loose; then the red beard happened to come over, and he tapped the string with a stick, and the rope immediately bent down—if the person pulling the net was trying to force it, then the stick could make a hissing sound when it was knocked on. The red beard scolded and kicked the man's lower abdomen with his foot. The man who pulled the net was five or six years older than me, and he quickly shouted, "Uncle, don't you dare." Redbeard still scolded. The young man pleaded as he pulled the net harder...

Red beard kept stretching out his stick and coldly tapping the string of string on the rope, and if any of the ropes were bent, the person would suffer. A fish seller next to me said, "That's the way it is, the most important thing for a person pulling a net is to work together." If they are all sneaky and hidden, then the net monkey year and horse month can be pulled up. ”

I didn't dare to speak, but stared at the slip of the man on the rope. I didn't dare to look at my father, and among those people he was thin and miserable. His ribs could be seen clearly in the sun. Everyone was naked, except he wore a pair of shorts. I don't know if I should take them off or wear them at the moment, but if they do, then he will be different from everyone else; if he does, it will only make me doubly ashamed. His shorts, folded with patches, I don't know if they were white or gray, how ugly they were in the sun. His ass was thin and small, and the rope of the pullnet was tightly tied to it, and I thought it wouldn't take long for his skin to be torn. Look at the others, all the butts are so thick and round, glowing black in the sun.

The red beard used to walk around his father. Later he stretched out his stick and knocked on his father's rope – fortunately the rope did not bend... At that time, my heart was going to jump out.

Redbeard is moody. When he was happy, he jumped around the beach with his waist crossed, and then he took the lead in shouting the trumpet--in fact, it was singing. At first, I didn't understand his trumpet, but I thought it was funny. His voice is so loud. For the first time, I saw a man tearing his throat, his neck bulging with tired green tendons, and singing with all his strength. He shouted the first sentence, and a group of people pulling the net followed up and shouted: "Hey! Hey! As they shouted, they thrust back with such force—they used this thrust to drag the net out of the sea inch by inch.

Later, the sea boss sang a strange rhythm again--I thought it was just a change of tone, and then I saw that the people who pulled the net had a proud smile and a twinkle in the eye. I felt something was wrong, because I noticed that my father's lips were moving, but he finally didn't sing with everyone. Someone scolded his father: "Why don't you keep up?" defect! The father glanced at the man, but still did not sing. The man scolded, "Fuck you! ”

Thankfully the old roller didn't find out... At this time, it was probably the critical moment of pulling the net, because I saw the old roller jumping more happily, and the green tendons on his forehead moved like earthworms. The words he shouted were vague, but I finally understood them: they were all vulgar words—when there were women among the people who came to buy fish, they shouted even more madly. The strange thing is that the women are not afraid of naked men at all, and sometimes deliberately go up to them, dotted and painted and said a few words, and the fish baskets are thrown aside--the old man who watched the fish shop flew up and let them roll on the beach like balls.

The woman who bought the fish was used to making trouble on the beach and didn't care about anything. They just want to live happily, just to sneak the fish on the beach to the south and make a fortune. Redbeard sometimes put the names of these women in the trumpet, and he led the singing, and the people who pulled the nets all used their strength to shout, "Hey, hey, hey!" ”

The sea boss was happy at one point, and used the wooden stick to flick under the belly of several young men, saying, "Good fellow, who can resist?" ”

The young man shouted loudly, and his legs trembled into the sand...

Sunlight is like fire, rolling on this slippery red skin. The father's body was red, and later he burst into skin. How terrible. One day I was looking in the sun and almost cried out: my father's skin was like torn cotton wool, and it looked like it was about to be peeled off the back of the whole thing... It took many more days for the skin to turn black and red.

They all laughed at his shorts... After a long time, my father quietly faded it. His whole body was only gray and glaring from his ass. At this point I was afraid he would turn his face. I've been dodging him...

Two

Whenever the big net approached the shore, the woman and child who bought the fish would call around. Everyone saw that the bay of water that was enclosed in the big net began to boil. Big fish howl, small fish squeak. The shrimp who thought it was weak and incompetent were so heroic and invincible in the water. Their long whiskers can fly and stab like arrows, and their delicate legs are just a gentle stomp, and their bodies are like lightning bouncing in one direction. The bodies are almost transparent, and you will feel that their bodies are full of transparent water, or crystals. Their arched backs are so powerful that one can't figure out where this power comes from. The long, messy, suction-laden legs of the squid fish are dazzling. Countless long legs danced like ribbons in the water, dancing wildly. Their legs clung to the seagrass and the tail of the fish, and they clung to it. The long black knife-like mackerel rampages, constantly jumping up and slashing at the sea. Only a few small fish hurried around, as if unaware of the impending crisis, and they tease the man pulling the net at the water's edge, swinging for a moment on the right and a moment on the left. At the head of a flock of small fish is an unknown, inconspicuous grey ridge-backed fish—and when all the fish are screaming in panic, only this group of small fish is swimming happily.

The fish are screaming, and the sun is sounding. Groups of adults and children surrounded the approaching net. One person pointed to the fish and said, "They're like boiled rice." The person who said this was an old lady who bought fish. Because the sea water gradually filters out, all kinds of fish are crowded together, and every face can be seen clearly. I've never seen so many fish that they're really going to come out of the pot like boiled rice. One side has already laid out a sheet of mats and is ready. Someone used a large wicker bucket to load up a live jumping fish and poured it on the mat. The fish jumped on the mat and barked until the pile became a hill.

The moment all kinds of fish were piled on the mat, the old man who watched the fish shop screamed, jumped out of the bunk like a marble, and stumbled all the way over. He took out a large iron box and a bucket of water, crouched on the edge of the mat and stared at it. He stared at the fish and picked them up, squirting in his mouth, filling the iron box in a moment and filling the bucket again. He carried it back to the shop.

After only a short while, there was a smell of seafood wafting from the fish shop. Everyone understood that the old man guarding the fish shop had begun to cook lunch.

When the fish were all on the mat, the person pulling the big net was relieved, and the red beard did not jump. The sea boss would pause for a while and doze off at this time. On the side, someone shouted and drank and carried a boss scale and began to sell fish. The fishmongers shouted and went up from all sides. Similar to Redbeard were the people who pulled the nets, and they were always hiding in the distance, leaning on the beach, letting the hot sun shine.

The people who had bought the fish earlier were not in a hurry to leave, they stepped over the lying man and cursed something. A woman carrying a fishing basket was about to step over a middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man hooked his foot. Defenseless, she fell to the ground and the fish scattered on the ground. She scolded, and the man helped her put the fish in the basket. Later, the man shouted something again, and grabbed her braid. The woman was angry, and instead she smiled and reached out to pinch him, and buried his body shallowly with sand. The man kept shouting, bluffing, and asking the people around him to come to the rescue—a few people really gathered around, stripped the woman naked in a moment, lifted her up again, shouted and drank, and threw her into the sea with a thud in her scolding. The woman shrank vigorously in the shallow water, not daring to stand up, and only said, "You damn, thunderstruck, come back to my clothes..." I think she was just scolding, not too annoyed, because she was there again in a moment to wash her neck and face with the sea water, washing so carefully.

While she was washing, the lazy red beard saw it, and then he yawned and undressed, stripped naked and went into the sea, and a fierce man plunged into the sea. The woman in the shallow water was so frightened that she quickly shouted for help. Redbeard's head popped out of the water and said, "Just come." The woman fled into the deep water, and the water flooded her chest, and Redbeard chased after her. The red beard is watery, and in the deep water, it can swing like walking, and hold the woman straight. They swam farther and farther in arms, shouting with the woman's pleasure. Many people on the shore stopped their work and looked deep into the sea.

The two men in the water huddled together, leaving only a small black spot. The guy over here said, "Sigh." The boss is very powerful, he can't sink in the water, and he can free his hands to do something else..."

The black dots trembled and drifted on the sea, and it took a long time before they gradually grew larger. The sea boss took the woman by the hand and returned to the shallow water. The woman passed by this time as if she was not so shy, grinning widely out of the water, walking to the shore drenched in wetness, grabbing her clothes and pants and putting them on, saying, "Don't bother with the individual!" ”

Someone asked the boss, "How's it going?" Redbeard said, "I'm like an old turtle, carrying her on my back and driving her far away." 'The big shark is coming,' I said. She was so frightened that she squeaked, so I hid her under her body and clamped her legs. After a while, I said that the old shark had run away before she dared to fall back on her back. These ladies are so heavy, there is a three-hundred-two-hundred-pound one. ”

Everyone laughed. Laughed so hard.

Lunch began, and everyone rushed to the fish shop to take out their own thick porcelain bowls and aluminum bowls. Some even brought a broken crock pot with an opening. Everyone was chaotically huddled around the two large iron pots. The lid is halved and can be removed from the pot twice. The old man who watched the fish shop looked very imposing at this time. He mused his face and calmly stirred in the pot with a bossy iron spoon. There was no greens in the pot, it was all fish. The big fish were chopped apart with a few knives and thrown into the pot, and the small fish were not even chopped. A pot of fish, some slices of ginger, a few green onions, just cooked together, the smell is great.

When the fish were divided, everyone naturally lined up, walked to the pot and stretched out the bowl. The old man who was watching the shop closed his eyes and said, "The boss will come first." So people turned back to look for Redbeard. Red Beard had already put on his pants, and a large teapot was tied to his trouser belt. He untied the teapot and stretched it out lazily. Watching the old man's spoon in the pot, he found a reddened wide-bellied broad-cheeked fish and snapped it into the teapot for the boss. Someone whispered that there was probably only this red-scaled gagi fish in the pot, so let the boss eat it. Everyone got a big bowl of fish, found a shade, and purred and ate. Someone also took a small bottle out of his trouser pocket and took a sip. Once the smell of wine is blown away by the wind, it will immediately attract many people.

My eyes searched for my father for a long time. In this chaotic crowd, he never found me. When his eyes turned, I hid behind the crowd. Father's bowl of fish was bigger than everyone else's. I think he is a man with a heart and eyes, worthy of being a man who has driven a mountain. But when the old man in the shop was dividing the fish, the spoon had just touched his father's large bowl, and he looked up—the fish in the spoon had not yet been poured out and moved away. "Come with some soup." I heard my father say coldly. Somehow I was happy and a little timid, and I held my breath. The old man hesitated slightly, scooped a little soup from the pot... Father's big bowl was full.

The scalding hot porcelain bowl beat in his father's hand, and he puffed and blew, probably not throwing it away when he was burned. He held it all the way to a great distance and ate it alone.

In the end, only our group of children were left, and there were some small fish and half a pot of fish soup in the pot.

"Did you all come with the grown-ups?" The old man who saw the fish shop asked.

A group of dolls shouted in unison, "Yes, yes." ”

I was caught in the middle of it and didn't say a word.

Watching the old man's spoon stir in the pot, he said, "Go find some housemates." ”

The children each went to their father to fetch the empty bowls they had drunk. I wandered and saw a large shell on the ground, so I picked it up.

A moment later my shell was filled with a small fish and a little fish soup. I squatted among the children and ate and drank nothing.

When my father finished eating, he went to the beach to make a shabu-shabu, and still did not see me who was very close to him.

It didn't take long to cast a second net. There wasn't much going on in the time before the net was cast, and the people pulling the nets were just hanging out on the shore. A man was walking and suddenly reached out and shouted, "Look, what a big jellyfish is over there!" ”

Several lying people listened and ran over. There is nothing strange about a jellyfish floating on the seashore, but I have never seen this animal floating in the water—it floats fifty or sixty meters from the shore, its colorful ribbons floating with the waves. Someone went to the shore and took an iron grappling hook and went into the water. Just then I saw my father also enter the water—he was closest to the man in front of him, and the man looked back and smiled and said, "Come on, let me give it to you." ”

The father did not say a word and took the scratching hook. At this time, everyone on the shore watched their father walk towards the big guy with the floating ribbon. I thought to myself: How beautiful is it, how can my father bear to stretch out the grappling hook? The father approached, and the ribbons seemed to stretch out again. A few people on the shore exclaimed a few times, but the guy who grabbed the hook for his father snorted and laughed.

At this moment, the ribbons suddenly stained the father, and the father immediately screamed that he wanted to jump away, but he just twisted his body in the sea; then several more ribbons were wrapped around the father. I saw my father's nose and eyes wrinkled together, almost falling down. But he grabbed the hook and only let his body bend. He gritted his teeth and his face was already purple. I shouted desperately:

"Daddy—Daddy—"

This time I couldn't hide myself. Dad finally heard it. He narrowed his eyes and searched through the crowd. He finally saw me. Then he closed his eyes again.

I saw him raise the grappling hook with his eyes closed and hook the jellyfish tightly.

"Good, good looking!" The people on the shore said in unison.

Father's whole body trembled, shaking his teeth like a cold, and he took a step toward the shore as he trembled, clutching only the grappling hook in his hand. The jellyfish were dragged up, and the father fell on the sand.

Some surrounded the sting, some surrounded the father.

Red Beard came over, stretched out his foot and kicked his father, and then shouted to the people on the side:

"Who's playing tricks on a raw hand?" I day your grandmother - who? ”

The man who had handed the hook to his father flinched back and was grabbed by Redbeard. He pulled the man's hair in a pinch, and the man fell back with a thud.

I squatted down beside my father. His body was like being whipped finely, and it was like being burned by a soldering iron, and it was full of red marks one after another, and they bulged on the skin. I cried. I don't think my father will ever come back alive again, because he closes his eyes as soon as he comes ashore. His breathing was getting weaker. My hand did not dare to press on these red marks, but only shouted: "Daddy, Daddy..."

I shouted until everyone was gone. Then Dad opened his eyes and I hugged him. The father snorted in his nose and struggled to sit up. He looked at the jellyfish that had been pulled open and didn't make a sound.

Later, someone made jellyfish into several pieces, and you and I divided them one by one. Someone took the biggest piece and shouted to his father, "The best piece belongs to you." ”

Father struggled to get up, and I put him in my arms.

Father's hand, like a steel hook, grabbed the piece of jellyfish at once.

Three

In addition to pulling the net, the work at sea is also to drive ships to the deep sea to collect snails. The snail pickers are all three people in a small boat. Some people were reluctant to exert their strength, and as punishment, they were sent by the boss of the sea to collect snails. The days of those snail pickers are sometimes quite comfortable. From time to time, I see small boats rocking up from the sea, and when they dock, they lift a basket of conch from the cabin. Conchs are not as valuable as fish.

The snail pickers did not work in white and black, but they were not much more bitter than the net pullers. Because sometimes the night net is pulled, and the person who pulls the net always has to spend the night at sea.

For some reason, one day the sea boss said to his father, "Go pick snails." ”

Father went to the small boat for snail picking.

I think there's nothing wrong with my father taking a free boat into the depths of the sea. However, the net is only on the shore, and the snail is going to the deep sea, and I am still a little worried about my father.

Every time the conch-picking boat left, I sat on the shore and waited for them to return. Sometimes the boat has to go out for most of the day to return, and sometimes it takes only a few hours to return - it depends on the harvest at sea, depending on the direction of the wind and the current, the high tide and so on. I don't understand this. At night, because I had to wait for my father to return, I often stayed on the shore. It was late at night, until the snail-picking boat returned and I saw my father, which was reassuring. I used to stay on those nights and sleep in the corner of the fish shop. The fishing man's body was full of fishy stench, and I was almost squeezed in the middle of these naked bodies, and I couldn't sleep. I am really sleepy to sleep for a while, and as soon as I close my eyes, I have to have some colorful dreams. Sometimes I dream of strange blackfish, they spin in the sea, attack the fishing people in groups, tear the big nets, overturn the boat, all the people who fall into the water are bitten, and the red blood gushes out... At this point I was so frightened that I couldn't sleep anymore. When my father returned to shore, he was very sleepy, and he slept too deeply. Despite this, I would love to tell him about the dream I just had.

One day, I saw my father clearly in my dream—I saw their snail-picking boat.

There were three people on the boat, one thin and one fat, and the remaining one was his father. Their boats walked on the calm sea, all the way to the depths of the sea. Then dusk came. They had picked a lot of snails, the cabins were full, and the boat was going to go back—and as soon as they turned around, a smiling, white-haired old man came up to the waves. The father pointed to the old man and said, "You, how can you walk on the surface of the water?" Are you human? The other two were pale with fright when they saw the white-haired man. The old man did not speak, but went to the boat, patted the shoulders of the three people, and then took out a bundle of red rope from his pocket -- I think it was like a red head rope, and the old man could not help but say, using this red rope to tie the arms of the three people one by one. After Tying, I waved my hand with them and walked away again on the waves. The three people were stunned, all looking down at the red rope on their arms, and none of them dared to untie it...

It was dawn, and I rubbed my eyes and walked out of the fish shop with my father. The snail-picking boat is on the wave print. The father walked over, and the two men were already waiting for him. Suddenly I grabbed my father's shirt and said, "Daddy, I'm afraid..."

He turned his face and sighed, not wanting to delay.

I stubbornly tugged at the hem of his coat.

This time he stood down for the first time and looked at me seriously. I said, "I had a dream, you must listen to it, there is you in this dream!" He took out his cigarette pot, glanced at the two people waiting for him, and smoked a cigarette and waited for me to talk.

"Daddy, I dreamed that the three of you were tied to a red-headed rope by an old man in the depths of the sea!"

He frowned.

"Each of you is tied up, a thin man and a fat man, and finally you."

The father pointed to the two men standing under the pillar and said, "Are they?" ”

I looked up: how strange, a little good, they are not bad with the image in the dream, I remember it clearly! I almost shouted, "Yes, that's them..."

My father's face turned livid, and he looked around and gently pushed me away with his hand. He slammed the pot and stuck it in his pants pocket. Then he crouched down. The two snail pickers came over. Father's face turned sallow again. He said to the two men, "You guys, go ahead, I can't go out to sea, my stomach hurts." ”

The two men clapped their hands, found a helper, and were about to sail away.

At this time, the father suddenly shouted at their backs, "Don't go either..."

The three men looked at their father with strange eyes and turned away.

After they left, my father went to the fish shop and lay down. He smoked one cigarette after another and didn't want to talk to me all day. It was getting dark, and the snail-picking boat did not return.

It was almost midnight when there was a shrill sound outside. Someone ran past the edge of the fish shop, shouting something.

Dad said, "Well, there is. ”

We all go out. It turned out that there was a big whirlwind blowing, and the sand was raised in mid-air. The man pulling the net stood on the shore and called. The sea boss said: "Fortunately, the big net is not in the sea, this gust of wind, the ghost is fierce!" He suddenly remembered the small boat picking snails and shouted, "Are they all up?" ”

"Not yet."

"Heavens, ghosts..."

The red beard grunted, his face full of uneasiness. He stood aside for a long time before he got into the shop.

Redbeard hadn't slept all night, and neither had my dad and I. The snail-picking boat still hadn't come ashore.

The next morning the wind stopped. There were several broken planks on the coast, and then three bodies were found...

Everyone was silent.

Red Beard inhaled a cool breath and looked at his father, whose hands were tightly clasped. Someone was in tears. But my father didn't, he just pulled me aside and sat down.

Leaning against a willow tree, my father took out a cigarette pot and put it in his mouth - he drew a match, but the pipe was empty... Father threw away the matches again.

He reached out and gently stroked my forehead. This hand is so warm.

Excerpted from Novel Monthly, Big Character Edition, No. 9, 2021

Novel Monthly, Big Character Edition, No. 9, 2021

Classic Re-reading | Zhang Wei: "Father's Sea"

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