Wang An recalled | past life

Past life

Wen | Wang Anyi Photo| Network Editor| Liema Green Onion

One day, walking on Tianshan Road in front of Shanghai's Hongqiao Development Zone, on the street side under the old workshop, two old women greeted each other. One of them had a small aluminum pot in his hand, which looked old, changed the bottom, and had some deflected ponds on the lid.

The old woman told the old woman that she had burned the bottom of the pot when she was cooking the rice, and she was about to go to the construction site there and asked someone for some yellow sand to wipe it. Two old men were talking, and behind them were the tall buildings in the development zone. The new smooth building materials, as well as the abstract and rational lines of the building, are like a huge modern drama canopy. The two old men are vivid, they live a concrete and careful life, which is the life of the past.

At that time, life was actually quite meticulous, and everything was considered in the long run. In the late summer and early autumn, cowpeas are old and about to go down, and the price has also come down. So the industrious housewife bought a basket of cowpeas, picked them up, and washed them. Then, thread a long line with a needle, put the cowpeas one by one, hang them, and dry them in the sun. In the winter, it is easy to eat roast meat. The used thread, pan in the water, straighten it out, put it away, and use it again when drying cowpeas in the coming year.

The thread that sews the quilt is also the horizontal vertical measurement accuracy and then cut, sewing to the head just right. When the quilt is removed, a needle is drawn out, straightened, washed, dried, and sewn. The line of the farmer planting and pulling the seedling line must be collected even more, which is a one-year plan that can be passed on to several generations.

Most of the cinemas do not have air conditioning, but they are provided with paper fans and placed in wooden boxes at the ticket gates. When you go in, pick up a handful, when you come out, throw it back, and the next person will use it again. This kind of life nurtures the hope of life, this year has passed next year, next year has passed and the year after, it is not a point to get by.

Unlike today, there are disposable utensils everywhere, used things, today is over, tomorrow is not over. Such a short-term behavior, squandering resources, not to mention, but also squandering the interest of life, with some "mix".

During the rainy season, the nylon umbrellas are full of flowers, but most of them are ruined. Or the umbrella fracture, or the umbrella surface fell off, turned over half of the side to go up, the rain did not draught on the chemical fiber cloth surface poured down, the umbrella is mostly very small, the handle is also short, people shrink inside to hide from the rain.

In the past, the umbrella was not as bright and beautiful as it is now, and there were not so many tricks: two folds, three folds, and automatic mechanisms, "whoosh" a sound to open. At that time, the umbrellas were mostly black cloth umbrellas, or sallow tarpaulin umbrellas, large and strong, and when the rain came down, the sound was also strong, snapping, snapping, snapping.

There is an oil-paper umbrella, which is more colorful, but also more fragile, and if you are not careful, you will poke a hole. However, the wooden umbrella bones of the oil-paper umbrella were very densely arranged, and people at that time cherished things with things. Unlike people today, things are not right things. At that time, people used umbrellas, and they had to open the shade and put them away. The bones and handles of the wooden umbrella gradually became like oil, and the longer they were used, the stronger they became. The iron umbrella bone will never rust.

If the umbrella surface is broken, it will be repaired by the craftsman who repairs the umbrella. They all have a pair of skillful hands, which are obedient and smooth. Holding it out, it is a good umbrella to shelter from the wind and rain. At that time, there were many craftsmen, and there were also bowls! There is a broken bowl, as long as it is not broken into slag, he has the ability to stubble, and then put a row of nails, not leaking at all. People today sound like myths.

If the leather ball played by the child is broken, you can also find a cobbler to make up for it. Rattan chairs, rattan beds, and even taojiao are broken, it is to find a smith to make up. How many good craftsmen! Now it's all gone. As a result, mountains of waste piled up. Life is actually much rougher now, with large amounts of material being hastily swallowed. And life at that time was to chew and swallow slowly.

At that time, there were restrictions on eating. People with good families, large ribs are also one piece per person. A fish, to eat a family. At that time, eating a chicken was a big thing, and it was almost with a grand atmosphere. Now the chicken is more, pecking at artificial feed from the conveyor belt, not practicing the legs and feet, the meat is loose, the taste is the same as chewing wax.

At that time, a piece of tofu was lit with brine. Mung bean sprouts are laborious to eat, and the roots and whiskers are removed one by one. The current mung bean sprouts have no root whiskers, and they are fat, and they taste good when they eat, just not like mung bean sprouts. Now there are more things, it seems that they will multiply, and things will give birth to things, and there will be more of them indefinitely. However, in fact, there are still so many good things, and if you want to have more, you can only dilute them.

This night, I went to a restaurant I frequented for dinner, and because of something, I only needed two bowls of cold noodles. At the time, business was booming. The boss and the guys ran up and down, sent live snakes and live fish to the guests for inspection, and then went back, and after a while, they served hot fish, shrimp, snake turtles. It is not to give you cold noodles, dead or alive to urge, life and death to send people away.

The same is true of business now, doing a hammer deal. Unlike the farther past, guests come and go, they are familiar with each other, and the next time, they have pulled up with you. The store relies on repeat customers, which is the way of business for a long time.

Unlike now, it was done today, it will close tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, not even a shadow will be seen. Life becomes hopeless.

About author:Wang Anyi (born March 6, 1954), born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, is a female writer of contemporary Chinese literature, vice chairman of the China Writers Association, director of the Novel Committee of the China Writers Association, and professor of the Department of Chinese of Fudan University.

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